As a researcher with extensive experience studying the intersection of technology, finance, and global economies, I find India’s push for digital currency adoption particularly intriguing. The involvement of American payment giants such as GooglePay and AmazonPay in the Reserve Bank of India’s digital currency pilot is reminiscent of the global chess game that is the digital economy.
It is being reported that popular U.S. payment platforms like Google Pay and Amazon Pay are planning to join the Indian central bank’s trial program for its digital currency.
Major American tech companies like Amazon and Google are said to be considering participating in India’s trial of a central bank digital currency, as the Reserve Bank of India broadens its digital currency project to include non-bank payment system providers.
Based on reports from Reuters, AmazonPay, GooglePay, PhonePe (supported by Walmart), along with fintech companies Cred and Mobikwik, have shown interest in handling transactions using India’s digital version of the rupee, commonly referred to as the e-rupee. However, it is still uncertain when these companies will begin participating in the pilot program.
At first, it was only Indian banks that had permission for electronic rupee transactions via their smartphone apps. Yet, in April, the Reserve Bank of India disclosed plans to incorporate payment companies into this trial project too.
India’s push for digital currency adoption
Introduced in December 2022, the e-rupee serves as a digital equivalent of the Indian Rupee, issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Post its release, RBI officials highlighted the e-rupee’s privacy aspects, ensuring the public that certain aspects of transactions would be kept confidential.
Although these guarantees have been made, the adoption of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) has progressed gradually. It wasn’t until June’s end that the Reserve Bank of India reported 1 million retail transactions with the e-rupee, a milestone reached mainly after local banks began offering incentives to their clients and disbursing some employee salaries in this digital currency.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier encouraged banks to process at least a million transactions per day by the end of 2023 as a test of the system’s capacity. Yet, this encouragement seems to have stopped, raising questions about the future of the digital currency project because of the difference between projected performance and real-world usage.
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2024-08-05 13:29