Key Takeaways:
- One of India’s largest retailer chain, Reliance announced that it will accept payments made with a digital rupee.
- Innoviti Technologies, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank are partners with the business in enabling this payment acceptance service at its retail locations.
As per reports, the largest retail chain in India, Reliance Retail, has expanded its support for the Digital Rupee, also known as the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) of the nation.
At its upscale grocery store Freshpik, Reliance Retail introduced the first in-store adoption of the RBI-created and Blockchain-based Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
The Mukesh Ambani-led company announced a partnership with fintech Innoviti Technologies, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank to introduce in-store support for the digital rupee. Customers will receive a dynamic digital rupee acceptance QR code to scan at the retailer if they choose to pay with the nation’s CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), also known as e-R.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the Indian CBDC last year, but it is still in the experimental phase. Only retail customers are intended for the experiment, which is restricted to institutions and businesses.
Numerous participants are now prepared to use the digital rupee, according to a senior official working on the project, including “Reliance, Indian Oil, Cafe Coffee Day, roadside fruit merchants, and tea vendors.”
To everyone’s surprise, The Mahindra Group Chairman posted a video showing a fruit vendor using the virtual money of the Reverse Bank of India (RBI).
According to managing director V. Subramaniam, “This historic initiative of pioneering the acceptance of digital money in our stores is in accordance with the company’s strategic aim of offering the power of choice to Indian consumers.”
The company hopes to eventually spread out the functionality to the rest of its locations if Reliance Retail embraces the CBDC at its gourmet retail brand Freshpik.
Rajeev Agrawal, founder and CEO of Innoviti Technologies, stated that “Digital Rupee satisfies the requirement of consumers who still want the trust, safety, and settlement finality of physical cash.”
Despite the fact that the race to adopt and advance through blockchain appears to be one of the most crucial talking issues for central banks worldwide. When blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies were left out of the government budget for 2023, millions of cryptocurrency owners in India completely lost faith. Many in the Indian crypto business had thought that the large crypto tax implemented in March 2022 would be reduced.
