30s Summary

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is looking to expand its platform enabling swift international payments, with plans to include partners from Asia and the Middle East. They’re considering using their own digital currency to facilitate these transactions and while currently only available to banks, it could be offered to the general public in the future. Despite concerns about potential government misuse, RBI continues to explore the applications of the digital Rupee, with trials reportedly engaging five million users and further plans to integrate it with foreign systems.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working on growing its platform that allows quick and easy payments between different countries. They are looking to add trading partners from Asia and the Middle East.

India already has a deal with neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Nepal, and they’re planning to add the United Arab Emirates to their programme.

They are also thinking about using new type of digital currency, controlled by central banks, to make these cross-border payments smoother and quicker.

Although RBI’s digital currency is currently only used by banks, they may allow everyday folks to use it in the future. However, they haven’t said when this might happen.

India is a big fan of this new digital currency along with other countries like China and Russia. They started looking into this back in 2020 and have been testing out different ways it can work since 2022.

In early 2024, RBI’s big boss, Shaktikanta Das, said that they were working on ways to use the digital Rupee in rural areas in India, where there’s not much internet connection.

India later said they had about 5 million people using their digital Rupee in a trial run in later 2024. At a conference on new technologies, Das mentioned they are in no hurry to make everyone in India start using the digital Rupee.

During the same conference, Das shared plans to make their digital currency work better with other countries’ by using a process that allows money to move easily between different systems.

Not everyone loves the idea of these digital currencies controlled by central banks. Some people worry that governments could misuse these systems and this could be worse than any benefits in terms of cost or efficiency.