- India’s largest retail chain Reliance has started accepting the country’s retail CBDC.
- The Digital Rupee will soon be accepted in 17,000 stores across the country.
- Reliance Retail has partnered with several Indian banks to enable CBDC payment for its customers.
In a huge push for the adoption of India’s retail CBDC, retail giant Reliance Retail announced earlier today that it would start accepting the digital Rupee-Retail (e₹-R) in its stores. The retail chain intends to extend the acceptance of India’s retail CBDC in all of its 17,000 stores spread across the country.
Reliance reportedly partnered with two Indian banks namely, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, along with fintech firm Innoviti Technologies, to roll out support for the digital Rupee-Retail. As of now, CBDC payments are available in one store called Freshpik, based in the city of Mumbai.
Reliance’s move to enable digital Rupee-Retail Rupee payments makes it the largest Indian company to embrace retail CBDCs. “With more Indians willing to transact digitally, this initiative will help us provide yet another efficient and secure alternative payment method to customers at our stores,” Reliance Retail Director B Subramaniam stated.
ICICI Bank’s Bihith Bhaskar claimed that the experience with this retail CBCD is “exactly like cash”. Customers will be able to make payments using a dynamic QR Code reading. The idea behind introducing a retail CBDC is to leverage the utilities that blockchain technology has to offer and to shield the consumers from volatility of cryptocurrencies. The digital Rupee-Retail will also address their economy’s reliance on paper currency.
The digital Rupee-Retail was first unveiled in December last year as part of the pilot program launched by India’s Central Bank. The initial phase was launched in 5 cities, including New Delhi and Bengaluru, with more joining the list later. The bank officials believe that the Reserve Bank of India plans to let its CBDC co-exist with paper currency.
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