PM Modi encourages use of RBI's digital currency at Odisha scheme launch

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Odisha government’s flagship Subhadra Yojana has been linked to the pilot project of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) digital currency and women beneficiaries of the state will be able to use it digitally.

The Prime Minister thanked women of the state for being part of it while launching the women-centric scheme in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, Modi said the scheme will provide financial assistance of ~50,000 to more than 1 crore women across the state, an amount which will be given to women in a timely manner, deposited directly to their bank accounts.

In 2022, RBI launched the the central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot programme for both retail (CBDC-R) and wholesale segment (CBDC-W).

CBDC-W serves institutional participants of the financial markets. CBDC-R is a digital medium of exchange for retail consumers with initial use cases being Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) transactions.

On the direct benefit transfers (DBT) front, the central government conducted over 10 billion transactions amounting to ~6.9 trillion during 2023-24.

According to RBI’s currency and finance report, the retail pilot CBDC saw customers growing to 5 million till June 2024 from 1.3 million a year ago while merchants increased to 0.42 million from 0.3 million.

During April’s monetary policy the central bank said that CBDC pilots are currently operating with increasing use-cases and participating banks, it is making CBDC-R accessible to a broader population by allowing non-bank payment system operators to offer CBDC wallets which will enhance access and expand choices for customers.