Reliance Retail accept digital rupee at one store

Reliance Retail, one of the largest retail chains in India, has made an announcement stating that they have begun taking the digital rupee at one of their shop lines and have plans to roll out the implementation to all of their companies.

According to a story published by Tech Crunch, the business has said that support for central bank digital currency (CBDC) has already been pushed out at its gourmet shop line, Freshpik. Additionally, the company said that it will be increasing support for the digital rupee across all of its domains. This is a step that has the potential to speed up the adoption of CBDC inside the nation.

An official at Reliance Retail named V Subramaniam said that the company’s decision to accept the digital currency issued by the country’s central bank is in line with its mission to provide Indian customers with “the power of choice.” The CEO also emphasised the fact that the company is now able to offer customers in its shops an additional method of payment as a result of the project.

The article states that in order to roll out support for the CBDC, Reliance Retail teamed with ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and the fintech business, Innoviti Technologies. Customers who choose to make their purchases with digital rupees will be given a QR code at the register to use in order to finalise their transactions.

In a note that was 51 pages long and published on October 7, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) detailed its plans for the country’s CBDC. The nation’s central bank outlined a number of considerations, one of which was the potential for both good and negative consequences. According to the Reserve Bank of India, one of the primary goals of a CBDC is to cut down on the overhead expenses associated with cash management.

In November 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) began testing a wholesale version of the digital rupee with participating institutions and businesses. The CBDC pilot programme for retail customers was launched by the central bank on December 1, 2022, and it was limited to a restricted user group consisting of customers and merchants.