Q: What is the current circulation of the digital rupee (CBDC) as of March 2023?
A: The digital rupee (CBDC) had a total circulation worth Rs.16.39 crore as of March 2023. This amount included ₹10.69 crore of wholesale CBDC and Rs.5.70 crore of retail CBDC.
Q: How does the digital rupee (e-rupee) compare to physical currency?
A: The digital rupee (e-rupee) is a digital representation of India's legal tender, similar to physical currency. It is issued in various denominations to banks.
Q: Which denominations of the digital rupee (CBDC) had the highest circulation?
A: Among the digital rupee denominations, Rs.500 CBDC notes had the highest circulation at Rs.2.71 crore, followed by Rs.200 notes at 1.16 percent. Circulation for other denominations ranged between 0.01 per cent and 0.83 percent.
Q: When were the CBDC pilot programs (CBDC (W) and CBDC (R)) introduced by the RBI?
A: The CBDC pilot for the wholesale segment, known as CBDC (W), was introduced in November 2022. The retail pilot, known as CBDC (R) was launched in December 2022.
Q: What was the initial use case for the CBDC (W) pilot program?
A: The initial use case for the CBDC (W) pilot program was limited to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.
Q: How has the retail CBDC been extended to banks?
A: Initially launched with eight public and private sector banks, the retail CBDC has been extended to more banks and made interoperable with UPI (Unified Payments Interface) QR codes.
Q: What is the significance of UPI interoperability for the digital rupee?
A: UPI interoperability enables e-rupees payments through existing QR codes in the UPI ecosystem.
It allows users to deposit digital rupees in their bank accounts even if the merchant does not have a CBDC wallet.
Q: What is the RBI's focus regarding the digital rupee and UPI interoperability?
A: The RBI is focusing on increasing the volume of digital rupee transactions.
The aim is to scale up from around 15,000 transactions a day to one million (10 lakh) transactions by making it interoperable with UPI QR codes.
