Overview
- The Reserve Bank of India said Friday, May 29, 2026, that it has broadened CBDC pilots to deliver public distribution system food subsidies in Gujarat, Puducherry and Chandigarh using programmable retail e‑Rupee that is redeemable only for eligible goods at identified shops.
- The RBI launched the Unified Markets Interface platform and started a pilot to issue and trade tokenised certificates of deposit with settlement conducted through wholesale e‑Rupee to speed up and simplify interbank settlement.
- The central bank formalised international work by signing an MoU with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, holding talks with the Central Bank of the UAE, and joining BIS Innovation Hub projects to develop technical and governance approaches for cross‑border CBDC payments.
- Reported retail e‑Rupee circulation fell about 24% in FY26 to Rs 771.66 crore from Rs 1,016.46 crore a year earlier, while wholesale e‑Rupee showed nil end‑of‑day balances because participating banks use an auto‑redemption feature that does not reflect intraday settlement activity.
- For FY27 the RBI plans to widen DBT and retail pilots, create a CBDC and Asset Tokenisation sandbox to test products, and run bilateral and multilateral cross‑border pilots, steps that could improve subsidy targeting and market settlement but will face an adoption and awareness challenge among users and intermediaries.