If you want the digital rupee to move from pilot to prime time, Nirmala Sitharaman is right there with you. In a keynote at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, she said, "I urge the Reserve Bank of India to further advance and also develop what it has initiated through both the wholesale and retail CBDC pilots." She added that the central bank should read the momentum in emerging payment systems and "continue to sharpen its capabilities with the digital rupee."
India has been running retail and wholesale CBDC pilots since 2022. The broader push is to expand digital payments and increase the circulation of central bank money in the economy.
Sitharaman argued that CBDCs can accelerate settlement and pointed to India's first tokenized bond issued by REC Ltd. earlier this week. "In this entire framework, the monetary settlement was possible due to the presence of CBDC," she said, calling tokenization the "defining development of our financial architecture."
Cross-border could be the next proving ground. Bloomberg News reported that India could push for wider CBDC usage in cross-border payments when BRICS leaders meet in New Delhi this weekend. Separately, BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors said the bloc plans to continue studying ways to cut the time and expense of cross-border transactions, including by expanding reliance on local currencies in trade and investment.
The tech story cuts both ways. Before Sitharaman spoke at the three-day fintech event, several officials - among them RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and his deputy Rohit Jain - underscored that rapid technological change can reveal weaknesses in the financial system. Sitharaman called the rise of artificial intelligence, including agentic AI, a "double edged sword" that can help spot fraud faster while also enabling larger and more sophisticated cyberattacks. She added, "Furthermore, the rise of quantum computing means our traditional security and encryption systems must be upgraded before current defenses become obsolete."
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Policy-wise, she said India does not intend to impose heavy regulation on fintech or domestic tech firms, but argued for a platform that can work with foreign governments overseeing frontier technology models. For your wallet, that mix matters: quicker settlement, smoother cross-border options, and stronger defenses can shrink friction and operational risk in the financial apps you use.
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