Shaktikanta Das, governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has announced Programmability and Offline Functionality for the central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project, mainly known as the Digital Rupee (e-rupee). While addressing the nation, during the Monetary Policy 2024 speech, Das proposed to enable additional functionalities of Programmability and Offline Capability for CBDC retail payments.
From what it’s understood, the Programmability addition to Digital Rupee will allow transactions for specific or targeted purposes, while the Offline Functionality addition to Digital Rupee will enable transactions in areas with poor or limited Internet access. Currently, the CBDC retail pilot enables Person-to-Person (P2P) and Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions.
Moreover, Das also stated that a revised regulatory framework will be put into place for electronic trading platforms (ETPs) which will be subjected to stakeholders’ feedback, along with the introduction of a principle-based framework for authentication of digital payment transactions
