"Now we are planning to test some more use cases in wholesale pilot of CBDCs," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said at the Global Fintech Fest 2023, reported Moneycontrol.
Last year, on November 1, the central bank launched the wholesale pilot of the CBDC, to settle the settle secondary market transactions in government securities.
RBI has adopted the strategy of calibrated and phased implementation to ensure smooth take-off and functioning, Das said.
He emphasised that CBDC offers new opportunities as it indicates the next milestone in the evolution of the payment system.
In 2022, RBI also launched CBDC’s retail pilot, including both person-to-person and person-to-merchant transactions. Das said as many as 1.46 million users and 0.31 million merchants are currently part of the pilot as of August 31, 2023.
Whereas, the pilot is currently being operated through 13 banks across 26 cities.
"The pilot is testing the robustness of the entire process of digital rupee creation, distribution and retail usage in real time," Das said, according to the report.