The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to expand the reach of its digital rupee pilots by introducing new cases of use and features for both retail and wholesale Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), according to the annual Central Bank report for 2024–25.
The central bank Says It aims to explore programmability and offline capabilities for digital rupee, features that can increase its availability in areas with limited access to the Internet and fees for specific use cases such as government subsidies or corporate expenditure controls.
Currently, both versions of the CBDC are undergoing pilot testing. CBDC’s retail pilot is carried out with select customers and merchants by participating banks, while the wholesale pilot targets the use of the interbank market.
Each report, the retail pilot reached 600,000 users throughout 17 banks. To further scale the adoption, the RBI allowed “some non-banks (…) to offer CBDC wallets.”
The wholesale pilot has also seen an increase in institutional interest. The scope of the wholesale was further expanded and sari -with the addition of four standalone main dealers (SPD), the report confirmed.
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India manages real-time payments
During the financial year 2024–25, digital payments in India experience significant growth, both in terms of quantity and value. According to the report, total digital payments recorded a growth of 34.8% in volume and 17.9% values.
In addition, India is leading the global real-time payment of the year. The RBI noted that the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) “India was placed in a leadership position with a part of 48.5 percent in a global real-time payment according to volume.”
The Central Bank said many modern features have been introduced to expand the benefits of digital payments in the wider segments of society.
For example, the report states that the “Delegated Payment” feature is combined, allowing “individual (primary users) to allow another individual (second user) to make upi transactions to a limit from the user’s main bank account.”
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Indian Supreme Court called for crypto regulation
On May 20, the Supreme Court of India raised concerns with not being wasting government Regulating cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, despite the imposition of 30% tax on them.
Justice Surya Kant criticized the existence of a “parallel economy” through digital possessions, calling it a potential threat to the country’s financial system.
In India, the users Pay a 30% tax In revenues from crypto trading, which has been effective since April 2022.
Although crypto companies operating in the country endured an increase in regulation, India is It is estimated to have More than 100 million digital asset holds out of 1.4 billion people.
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