Digital Rupee: A Currency Revolution For All??

The Indian central bank's digital currency, known as the e-rupee, is starting to gain attention.

- Neha Gaur

Many of us have received messages from our banks inviting us to take part in the pilot test of the retail e-rupee. Some of the more curious individuals among us may have even gone ahead and downloaded the app, which boasts a user-friendly and polished interface. Depending on our level of trust in all things digital, we may have also transferred small amounts of money into our erupee wallets.

However, the excitement encounters a significant hurdle at this stage. If you happen to reside in cities like Mumbai or Bengaluru, you might be able to locate merchants who accept e-rupees as payment and make a purchase. But in cities such as Chennai, Jaipur, or Pune, the e-rupee in your wallet is unlikely to be of much use since the network of merchants who accept the Indian Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as payment is virtually non-existent in many places.

For those of us who may have wanted to experiment with e-rupee money transfers, finding like-minded individuals willing to join this experiment can be quite challenging. One may need to search through their social media contacts extensively before finding someone willing to receive a small sum, just for the sake of trying it out.

However, it's important to note that these are still early days and we are currently in the pilot phase. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is actively testing user responses, the technical capabilities of the infrastructure, security features and more. They plan to refine the final product based on this initial experience. The number of merchants accepting e-rupees is expected to increase significantly once UPI payment QR codes become interoperable with e-rupee payments. Additionally, as more tech enthusiasts express interest in using the e-rupee in the future, it may become easier to find others with e-rupee wallets.