India's digital currency as a tool for social welfare - The pilot project is also being supported by the World Bank
India's central bank is also using its digital currency, the e-rupee, as a way to make social payments. The $80 billion welfare support and funding package has historically been plagued by corruption and inefficiency.
While India's efforts have been modest compared to those of China, where more than 200 million people use the e-yuan, the world's most populous nation could theoretically become the largest issuer of the digital currency if the system gains traction.
At the moment, Indian authorities are working to define use cases in the food distribution and farm subsidy sectors, where social assistance often has difficulty reaching the right recipients.
The pilot project, jointly run by the World Bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Maharashtra government and the Punjab National Bank, is one of about 10 experiments being conducted across India to test whether the electronic rupee currency can be used to deliver welfare payments more efficiently.
China and India are the only countries with large-scale programmable digital currencies, analysts say. India’s pilot scheme has about 10 million users. Globally, 49 countries are currently implementing digital currency pilots, while only a handful have made a full launch. India launched the e-rupee in late 2022, touting it as the future of payments while warning that privately issued cryptocurrencies pose risks to financial stability, but adoption has been limited.
Transactions using the e-rupee have totaled about $3.6 billion since its launch, a tiny fraction compared to the $300 billion processed each month in India's Unified Payments system.
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