Reliance Retail reportedly announced on Thursday, February 2 that it would start using India’s digital rupee CBDC in its Mumbai stores. The retail giant has partnered with ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank to accept and process CBDC payments. The Indian government has rolled out its CBDC in select cities including Mumbai. Reliance Retail customers wishing to pay with CBDC will need the banks digital rupees app to facilitate payment by scanning a QR code.
The development was allegedly announced by Reliance Retail chief executive V Subramaniam during a public event on Thursday.
“I believe CBDC will be better than that UPI system. Transactions are anonymous and protected. Additionally, acceptance at 17,000 Reliance retail stores will play a role in CBDC adoption,” Subramaniam was quoted as saying.
Built on the distributed ledger system from Blockchain, the CBDC is a digital representation of Indian fiat currency. Using CBDCs would maintain immutable and transparent transaction records on the blockchain while reducing any additional costs such as service fees currently associated with online payments.
India’s CBDC became official in December last year kicked in its retail testing phase in four cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.
The State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank are also participants in the ongoing CBDC studies.
Subramaniam’s CBDC acceptance announcement comes just a day after Treasury Secretary Nirmala Sitharaman skipped raise the issue during the budget speech.
While skeptical about letting nationals engage with volatile cryptocurrencies, India is open to exploring the potential of blockchain technology.
In November last year, Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had done so called that this CBDC will fundamentally change the way business is done.
Transactions via CBDCs would remain in place anonymous “to a certain extent” in accordance with relevant legal requirements, an RBI official had said in December 2022.
