India will pilot digital rupees in four cities from December 1

CTOnews.com, November 30, according to Bloomberg, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will pilot digital rupees (CBDC) in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Bubbaneswar from December 1, with the initial participation of four banks, including the National Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC first Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India said that later, the pilot program would be extended to nine other cities, including Ahmedabad, Gantok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Simla, with four more institutions joining.

The test will be conducted with a selected group of customers and merchants, the digital rupee will be issued in the same denomination as existing banknotes and coins, the digital rupee can be paid to the merchant using a QR code, and, like cash, the digital rupee will not have any fees.

CTOnews.com learned that the Bank of India announced its plan to build a prototype digital rupee in October and tested it in a series of scenarios and use cases.