Published Paper Details:

The digital Rupee or E-Rupee is tokenised digital version of Indian Rupee, issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Digital Rupee was proposed in January 2017 by a inter-ministerial committee. It was formed under the Department of Economic Affairs in Ministry of Finance and recommended a digital form of fiat currency. The Department of Financial Services of MoF (Metal Organic Form), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the RBI were invited to look into legal and technological development of CBDC. After RBI announcing sandbox to test next generation technologies to benefit the financial ecosystem, the Indian Government proposed a bill to ban trading and investments in crypto currencies while giving legal power to RBI for developing CBDC. As per the Currency and Finance Report of 2021 released by RBI, CBDC backed by the sovereign must promote non-anonymity transactions and financial inclusion by direct transfers. Even though RBI was planned to trial the initial stage of CBDC from December 2021, the Government of India worked on amendments of The coinage Act(2011), FEMA Act (1999), IT Act( 2000) and Crypto currency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 to govern CBDC in the economy. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in association with Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), National Health Authority (NHA) and partner banks, together associated in the development of 'e- RUPI'. The pilot in this whole background, known as the Digital Rupee or E-Rupee was launched on 1 November 2022. The launch of the digital rupee represents a significant advancement in the "Digital India" revolution.