The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to conduct the retail pilot of the “digital rupee” after assessing the large-scale usage of its central bank digital currency (CBDC). According to the Economic Times of India, the Reserve Bank of India is in the last phase of preparing the rollout of the retail digital rupee pilot. It is projected that the pilot will begin operation within a month. Read Also: Bank of England executive reveals UK may need digital Pound following FTX’s collapse The initial participants of the pilots are the State Bank of India, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Union Bank of India, IDFC First Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Bank of Baroda. According to reports, all commercial banks in the country will be included along the way. Details of The Reserve Bank of India’s retail CBDC pilot launch The proceedings seek to ensure that every bank involved as a participant tests the CBDC among 10,000 to 50,000 users. To ensure smooth incorporation of the retail CBDC pilot— the new payment scheme, the participating banks will partner with PayNearby and Bankit platforms. Read Also: Singapore reveals $275m FTX investment The CBDC infrastructure will be in the grasp of the National Payments Corporation of India— NPCI will serve as a control measure for the CBDC’s infrastructure. An anonymous source revealed to Indian journalists: “The e-rupee will be stored in a wallet, and the denominations will be available as per the customer’s request, just like you request cash from an ATM. Banks are launching this only in select cities.” This means that users and merchants will have to download the special wallets for the CBDC, though this is not going to go on for long because there are plans by RBI to fully incorporate it with operating virtual banking utilities. Reports suggest that the digital rupee is not a substitution for the present payment structure. Rather, it is a supplement to it and there are expectations about how this is going to fully operate. The full-scale segment pilot for the digital rupee was initiated by RBI on the 1st of November. Its core use case has been the means for peripheral market transactions in government securities. Nonetheless, there has been no news on the successful ending of the full-scale. The main use case of India’s CBDC pilot will be to settle secondary market transactions in government securities. The digital rupee is expected to add more efficiency to the interbank market by reducing transaction costs of settlements, the Reserve Bank of India said. India has been somewhat quick in launching a CBDC. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the initial plans in February 2022, declaring that a digital rupee would be a “big boost” for India’s economy. The Reserve Bank of India then proposed a three-step graded approach for its rollout, aiming for little or no disruption to the traditional financial system.