The Reserve Bank of India is set to unveil its digital fiat (CBDC) model, the project is to be rolled to by the end of this year according to the bank’s deputy governor.
Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar announced today that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is preparing to unveil its model for operations of fiat digital currencies by the end of 2021, in a recent development about the status of India’s Central Bank Digital Currency.
“It will be difficult to pin a date on it (introducing DC). We should be able to come out with a model shortly, probably by the end of this year,” Sankar told reporters at the post-policy review press conference.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das warned against the risks of private, unregulated cryptocurrencies amid the RBI’s crypto crackdown.
He also revealed that the RBI had formed a task group to investigate and assess the online suicide rate of borrowers as a result of the digital lender system.
He informed the media that the study is nearing completion and will be given to the RBI by the end of August for a decision on whether or not to take immediate action.
RBI’s CBDC is being rolled out in stages.
RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar’s statement on July 22nd made it apparent that the central bank is committed to establishing its own CBDC as soon as possible.
India would consider a staggered release of its digital currency once the operation model is determined, according to Sankar.
He emphasized that it is past time for India to join the CBDC bandwagon since first-world countries have already completed their digital currency launch phases.
According to a survey from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), 86 percent of central banks around the world are researching CBDC, 60 percent are experimenting with it, and 14 percent are in the pilot testing phase.
“RBI has been exploring the pros and cons of the introduction of CBDCs for quite some time…RBI is currently working towards a phased implementation strategy and examining use cases which could be implemented with little or no disruption to India’s banking or monetary systems.”, said Sankar.
