India’s Central Bank Begins First Digital Currency Pilot, With 9 Banks Participating

An Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo is seen on the main entrance gate of the RBI headquarters in Mumbai on April 1, 2014. India's central bank kept key interest rates steady in a widely anticipated move less than a week before the start of national elections, due to start April 7. Indranil Makherjee/AFP/Getty Images

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday launched its first pilot program for a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), with the participation of nine banks that it had shortlisted.

“The use case for this pilot is settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities,” the RBI said in a statement (pdf).