The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched the first pilot of retail Digital Rupee or Central Bank Digial Currency (CBDC) on Thursday.  

RBI has partnered with four banks for the first phase of this pilot- State Bank of Inida, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank and is launched in select cites Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Bhubaneswar on December 1, 2022. 

What is Digital Rupee?

The Digital Rupee or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is the digital version of the cash, issued by the RBI used for all retail transactions much like cash. “The e₹-R would be in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender,” the RBI said on Tuesday.  

In a token based CBDC, the person receiving a token will verify that his ownership is genuine. "A token based CBDC is viewed as a preferred mode for CBDC-R as it would be closer to physical cash," Stated RBI earlier.

The Self Reliant India fund which is a ₹ 10000 crore fund by GOI, has said that it has committed 50% of its funds with in a year of its launch. The fund so far has committed more than 50% of its funds to more than 38 daughter funds to be invested in MSMEs, since its launch in last October.

SRI Fund started as a part of 'Atmanirbar Bharath' programme. The SRI fund is a Category II Alternative Investment Fund that the Indian government set up to make equity investments in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with an aim to address the current capital gap and catalyse the flow of capital in the sector. It is anchored by NSIC Venture Capital Fund Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC). 

The fund has Mother Fund- Daughter fund Structure where in the Mother fund invests up to 20% of the corpus to the Daughter fund, which in turn raises the rest of 80% fund from outside.

Daughter Funds empanelled with SRIF include TATA Capital Healthcare Fund, Aavishkaar India Fund, Avaana Sustainability Fund, Fireside Ventures Investment Fund III, Gaja Capital India Fund, ICICI Ventures' India Advantage Fund S5 I, SVL-SME Fund, Nab Ventures Fund 1, Maharashtra Defence and Aerospace Venture Fund, Omnivore Agritech and Climate Sustainability Fund 3.

SRIF is launching a technology platform to establish a transparent and standardised procedure for Daughter Funds to seek investments, which will also assist in compliance and reporting for statutory and administrative purposes.