NEW DELHI: Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, Government of India, while talking on the Union Budget 2022, announced the introduction of digital rupee by the Reserve Bank of India. The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or the digital rupee will be introduced using blockchain.
It was in October 2021 that the Reserve Bank of India had gained approval for a modification to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, to broaden the definition of “bank note” to include digital currency. The central government had said earlier that CBDC has the potential to provide significant benefits including reduced dependency on cash. Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, GoI, said that RBI has been researching use cases and developing a phased deployment approach for bringing CBDC to market with minimal interruption.