A leading Indian retail chain supports CBDC payments in its stores

Reliance Retail supports the digital Indian Rupee.

One of India's largest retail chains, Reliance Retail, has announced that it has started accepting the digital rupee in one of its Freshpik store lines. At the same time, the company plans to expand the payment method in its other companies.

CBDC payments gain support in India

In the Tech Crunch report, we can read that Reliance Retail supports a payment method using CBDC in its line of gourmet stores - Freshpik. In addition, the retail chain plans to extend support for the digital rupee to its other companies, and the traffic generated by them is expected to potentially push CBDC adoption for all of India forward.

V Subramaniam, executive director at Reliance Retail, indicated that the central bank's acceptance of digital currency is in line with the company's vision of offering "power of choice" to Indian consumers. The director also emphasized that the aforementioned initiative gives the company the opportunity to offer an alternative payment option in its stores.

According to the report, Reliance Retail is working with banks ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and fintech Innoviti Technologies to develop support for CBDC. Consumers who choose to pay with a digital rupee will receive a QR code in the store to complete the payment.

The plans for a national CBDC were outlined by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on October 7 last year in a 51-page note. The country's central bank has defined various factors, including the potential positive and negative effects of the digital rupee in the country. According to the RBI, one of the motivations behind CBDC is to reduce the operating costs of cash management.

The Reserve Bank of India launched a wholesale digital rupee pilot in November 2022 for institutions and traders. On December 1, the central bank launched a CBDC pilot for retail consumers as part of a closed user group composed of merchants and customers.