Industrialist Anand Mahindra is quite regular on Twitter where he shares interesting videos and insights. The Mahindra Group Chairman shared a video of a fruit vendor using the Reverse Bank of India (RBI)’s digital currency. Mahindra said he had learnt about the RBI digital currency, the e-rupee, at the central bank’s board meeting. “At the Reserve Bank’s board meeting today I learned about the @RBI digital currency-the e-rupee. Right after the meeting I visited Bachche Lal Sahani, a nearby fruit vendor who is one of the first merchants to accept it. #DigitalIndia in action! (Got great pomegranates as well!)” Mahindra tweeted Wednesday. Watch the video below: At the Reserve Bank’s board meeting today I learned about the @RBI digital currency-the e-rupee. Right after the meeting I visited Bachche Lal Sahani, a nearby fruit vendor who is one of the first merchants to accept it. #DigitalIndia in action! (Got great pomegranates as well!) pic.twitter.com/OxFRWgI0ZJ — anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) January 25, 2023 “Still not sure, how it’s different from @UPI_NPCI payment or why we need a seperate digital currency,” commented a user. “Digital revolution taking our economy further,” said another. “How is this different from UPI? All it says is instead of saying “received payment of” it says received “digital rupees” what am I missing,” wrote another netizen. “Thats great. Now think about reducing polybag use,” posted yet another. The RBI in December last year launched the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) — digital rupee or e-rupee. CBDC is a legal tender issued by the RBI in digital form. It is the same as the fiat currency, and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different — it is not paper (or polymer) like physical cash. It is a fungible legal tender, for which holders need not have a bank account. The pilot launched will initially cover four cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.
