According to reports, The Reserve Bank of India is planning to launch the first pilot for retail digital Rupee (e₹-R) on December 1, 2022.

RBI says, “The pilot would cover select locations in closed user group (CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants. The e₹-R would be in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender. It would be issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued. It would be distributed through intermediaries, i.e., banks.”

Reports suggest that, Users will be able to transact with e₹-R through a offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones.

Transactions can be both Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M).

RBI has also selected eight banks for phase-wise participation in this pilot. The first phase will begin with four banks - State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank in four cities.

Later, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will join this pilot.

The pilot will initially be rolled out in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar. It will be extended to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla. The scope of pilot may be expanded gradually to include more banks, users and locations as needed.

Shaktikanta Das, Governor, RBI says, “I don't want to give a target date by which time the CBDC will be launched in a full-scale manner because this is something where we have to proceed very carefully. This is the first time the world is doing it. We don't want to be in a great hurry.”