The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon publish a policy paper detailing its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or 'Digital Rupee' ambitions, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday during a virtual address on the 185th Foundation Day Celebration of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce. "We do not want to be left behind in this technology revolution that is taking place," he said. “On CBDCs, a lot of work is going on internally in the Reserve Bank of India and we will be coming out with some broad guidelines and approach paper very shortly. There are a few issues to be sorted out internally and its very much work in progress,” Das said. The RBI’s guideline and proposed policy paper could address two aspects, the first is on capitalising on the benefits of blockchain technology and the second is the operations of the CBDC, the Governor suggested in his address. Over the last month the crypto-currency industry in India has been thrown into a tizzy, ever since the government said it would introduce a new law which would ban "private" crypto-currencies, while creating a national digital currency. As very little information about the bill is available, speculation surrounding what the government and RBI is planning has grown over the past few weeks. Despite routine consultation with the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry over the last year, industry insiders say that the government seems to have drawn the incorrect conclusion that crypto-assets need to be banned for a digital currency to simultaneously…
