India’s Prime Minister Modi: Digital Rupee Will Strengthen Digital Economy, Revolutionize Fintech

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, says an Indian central bank digital currency will strengthen the digital economy. The digital rupee will also revolutionize the fintech sector by creating new opportunities and lessening the burden of handling, printing, and the logistics of cash management, the prime minister reportedly explained.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly highlighted the potential benefits of India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee, on Wednesday while addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members and leaders at a virtual conference on the federal budget.

The country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced during her budget speech Tuesday that the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will launch a digital rupee in the financial year 2022-23.

Prime Minister Modi was quoted by local media as saying:

The digital rupee will be the digital form of our physical rupee and will be regulated by the RBI. This will be such a system that will enable an exchange of physical currency with digital currency.

“Central bank digital currency will strengthen the digital economy … If anyone makes a payment in digital currency, you will be able to change it to cash,” the prime minister emphasized.

Noting that “CBDC will make digital payments and online transfers of funds more secure and risk-free,” Prime Minister Modi said, “This will also lead to ease in development of global digital payment systems.” The prime minister added:

The digital rupee will revolutionize the fintech sector by creating new opportunities and lessen the burden in handling, printing, logistics management of cash.

A growing number of central banks worldwide are exploring central bank digital currencies. According to the Atlantic Council’s central bank digital currency tracker, 87 countries are now working on a CBDC. India would become one of the world’s first major economies to introduce a central bank-backed digital currency if the RBI issues the digital rupee this coming financial year.

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