India test cross -border payments with digital rupees

India is taking serious steps in the development of its Digital Central Bank Munt (CBDC), the digital rupid. According to CNBC, the Central Bank, the Bank of India (RBI) reserve wants to test new functionalities, including applications for cross -border payments.

International ambitions

A CBDC is a digital asset issued by a central bank. More and more countries are busy with such currencies, and so do India. The advantage of a digital rupid compared to the traditional rupid is the use of blockchain. This makes transactions with a CBDC, in this case the digital rupid, much faster, more transparent, cheaper and more reliable.

India is currently mainly looking at the use of such a CBDC for international payments. According to the annual RBI report, the Central Bank is currently actively working on pilots for such international payments. This is done with foreign partners, which indicates that India wants to use its digital currency not only nationally, but also internationally.

The project is still in an experimental phase, but in the long term the initiative can mean an important step towards international adoption of digital rupees.

The pilot for the Wholesale version of the e-coupie started in November 2022, followed by a retail version in December of the same year. The new test projects will probably build on the results from these earlier phases.

Growth in use, but low adoption

The value of the digital rupee in circulation increased sharply last year. Whereas in the 2024 financial year converted around 28.1 million dollars in circulation, this increased to more than 122.1 million dollars in the 2025 financial year. This is an increase of 334 percent on an annual basis.

Nevertheless, the adoption with the general public is slow. Only after local banks started paying out salaries in digital rupees and entered other incentive measures, the milestone of 1 million retail transactions was reached. The original ambition of the RBI to realize at least 1 million transactions by the end of 2023 has not been achieved.

Although the digital rupid shows large growth rates, there are doubts about the actual adoption. Without incentive measures, interest among consumers and companies seems limited. This raises questions about the support for the long -term initiative. The cross -border test pilots could breathe new life into the project, especially if India manages to set up collaborations with other central banks.