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Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Digital Rupee vs Crypto: What the debate misses about the future of money
India is in the midst of a silent revolution in money. On one hand, we have the Digital Rupee , the Reserve Bank of India 's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and on the other, the rapidly growing world of crypto-assets and stablecoins operating on public blockchains. Both are vying to redefine how value is transferred in the digital age. And yet, the ongoing debate—often framed as CBDC vs Crypto—misses the point entirely. Because the real question is not about which technology wins, but who benefits from it. When the debate gets wrong Public discourse often pits the Digital Rupee and crypto against each other—as if they are fundamentally incompatible. The truth is, both are programmable forms of digital money, designed for different purposes, but potentially coexisting in the same future financial system. Crypto Tracker TOP COIN SETS BTC 50 :: ETH 50 -3.77% Buy Smart Contract Tracker -5.49% Buy DeFi Tracker -10.48% Buy Web3 Tracker -10.95% Buy NFT & Metaverse Tracker -12.38% Buy TOP COINS (₹) XRP 193 ( 2.6% ) Buy BNB 56,658 ( 0.59% ) Buy Bitcoin 9,215,509 ( 0.39% ) Buy Ethereum 222,362 ( -1.14% ) Buy Solana 13,227 ( -1.93% ) Buy The Digital Rupee is a sovereign, state-backed currency that retains all the regulatory control of fiat, with some of the benefits of digital settlement—speed, transparency, and auditabilit. Crypto, especially stablecoins and DeFi protocols, represents open, global finance—designed to reduce reliance on intermediaries, enable 24/7 global settlement, and allow innovation at the edges. Did you Know? The world of cryptocurrencies is very dynamic. Prices can go up or down in a matter of seconds. Thus, having reliable answers to such questions is crucial for investors. View Details » But focusing only on the instruments is missing the forest for the trees. What matters most is the end user's experience. Live Events For the user, convenience is king Whether it's a CBDC or a stablecoin, the average Indian citizen wants: Instant settlement Low transaction fees Universal acceptance Interoperability across borders Clear privacy and control over their funds If the Digital Rupee delivers this, it wins. If crypto and stablecoins can do it better, they will continue gaining ground—especially among tech-savvy users, freelancers, SMEs, and NRIs. So far, Digital Rupee usage is modest—with just 19 banks live and around 100,000 daily transactions reported in mid-2024. By comparison, UPI clocks 350 million+ transactions a day, and stablecoins globally settled over $7 trillion in 2023. The bigger problem: Not who builds it, but who controls it Let's zoom out. India built UPI—arguably the most successful public payments infrastructure in the world. But despite being a product of NPCI (a quasi-government entity), UPI adoption is now dominated by three major apps: Google Pay PhonePe (majority owned by Walmart) Paytm (with large foreign ownership) Together, these three control over 94% of UPI transaction volume. So while UPI is Indian in origin, the monetization, data leverage, and platform control rests in the hands of foreign-backed companies. Indian startups in the payments space face high entry barriers, and the market has become increasingly difficult to penetrate due to high compliance, capital, and branding costs. If India repeats the same model with the Digital Rupee—where state infrastructure is handed over to foreign-led platforms for distribution—we will be building Indian rails for global profits, again. India needs a strategic payments agenda To avoid this, India must learn from UPI's journey: Create favorable policies and early access for Indian startups to build on top of the Digital Rupee. Ensure neutral interoperability layers so no single app dominates wallet access or merchant onboarding. Offer incentives and sandboxes for fintechs and Web3 startups to create novel CBDC use cases in sectors like trade, MSME finance, insurance, and mobility. Consider public-private models where infrastructure remains open but innovation is encouraged locally. After all, payments aren't just a technical tool—they are an instrument of economic sovereignty . And whoever controls the interface to money, controls much more than just transactions. It's not Crypto vs CBDC. It's about empowering Indians At the end of the day, the user doesn't care whether their money comes from a central bank node or a smart contract. They care about speed, cost, and usability. A Digital Rupee that settles instantly, works offline, and integrates with UPI? Excellent. A crypto wallet that lets an Indian freelancer receive USD-stablecoins from a US client and cash out into INR at low cost? Also excellent. The key is not to fixate on the rails, but to ensure that the value stays in India, and Indian entrepreneurs are not locked out of building the future. Because if we don't, we risk creating another UPI story—built by India, but controlled by others. And that's a mistake we can't afford to make twice. (The author, Aishwary Gupta is the Global Head of Payments & Real World Assets at Polygon Labs) ( Disclaimer : Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
Mint
10-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Agentic payments are here: Why India needs a rupee-based stablecoin
As the founder of a global payment solutions company, I have a sense of pride when I speak about India's payment systems to our global customers. India has offered 24/7 settlements for all types of payments for years and many nations are only now catching up with it. Our Unified Payments Interface (UPI) stands as a world-class example. In order to retain this leadership position, India needs to be nimble about a new paradigm that is emerging in the global payments landscape: programmable payments. These refer to a type of financial transaction where the execution and conditions of the payment are directly embedded in the software code associated with it. This means pre-set rules that dictate when, how and to whom a payment should be made without requiring manual intervention for each such programmed transaction. This shift towards programmable payments, driven by advancements in blockchain technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart contracts, allows for automated transactions triggered by predefined conditions, auditable payments and much else that we cannot fully fathom today. While India has been a trailblazer in real-time payments, we must embrace the opportunity presented by the rise of programmable money to retain our hard-won leadership. Also Read: Defence alert: Crypto is turning into a geopolitical weapon India has already taken initial steps in this direction. The ongoing pilot project of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)—a digital blockchain-based form of a country's official currency issued and regulated by its central bank, representing a direct liability of this monetary authority, like physical banknotes and coins—has programmable features on its test agenda. Further, the National Payments Corporation of India's (NPCI) e-Rupi initiative has demonstrated an ability to issue payments for specific predefined use cases. India is also participating in a global effort by central banks to streamline cross-border payments. However, the global landscape is evolving at a blistering pace. Fuelled by innovations initially explored within blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystems, countries like the US are now rapidly pursuing the widespread adoption of programmable money. They are leapfrogging ahead by leveraging the functionality and flexibility offered by stablecoins—a type of blockchain-based digital asset designed to peg its value to that of a relatively stable-value asset, like a government issued fiat currency. Simultaneously, experiments in tokenization—creating 'digital twins' of real-world assets for these to be managed, transferred and traded more efficiently and transparently—are paving the way for efficiencies in asset ownership and transfer. Also Read: Will India's e-Rupi be a game changer like Kenya's M-Pesa? While the two operate independently today, the convergence of tokenization with programmable payments in the future promises to unlock a truly advanced financial services system. This convergence will enable highly automated, conditional and transparent financial transactions, revolutionizing everything from supply-chain finance to personalized lending. Countries are exploring diverse models for handling the emergence of stablecoins. The models have ranged from light-touch regulation to heavy oversight and span both private and banking-sector issuances of stablecoins. India needs to discern and adopt the model that best suits our financial and regulatory environment. The CBDC is an excellent instrument for some applications, like reducing cash usage and facilitating offline payments. But it may not be the optimal vehicle for enabling a broad-based transition to programmable money. To maintain our leadership position and enable consumers and businesses to fully embrace the potential of programmable money, we must expand our efforts beyond the CBDC's current scope, fostering a wider ecosystem of innovation and adoption. The country needs a stablecoin based on the Indian rupee issued by regulated participants. Also Read: The rupee's digital future is far more relevant than its domestic heritage India's framework of capital controls presents a challenge and an opportunity as we make this leap into programmable payments. Capital controls create a complex set of constraints in implementing such a transformative programme. At the same time, the architecture of programmable payments can streamline compliance, enhance real- time monitoring capabilities and enable better enforcement of our capital controls with substantially lesser friction. The transition to programmable money will require substantial investment from commercial banks to upgrade their existing infrastructure. This investment dovetails well with the underlying shift to a world dominated by artificial intelligence. The emerging 'agentic world,' where autonomous AI agents will increasingly manage tasks and transactions, will demand 'agentic payments'—transfers that are not merely small, fast and low-cost, but intelligent, conditional and capable of being executed autonomously by these task-oriented AI bots. This symbiotic relationship underscores the urgency and strategic importance of broad-basing our efforts in the field of programmable money. The future of finance is being written by tokenization and AI with programmable money as a foundational element. If India is to maintain and fortify its leadership in the global payments landscape, we must think and act swiftly to enable an Indian rupee- based stablecoin and facilitate the adoption of programmable payments. The author is the founder and CEO of Pay3.
Time of India
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Digital ‘9/11' is coming: Living Nostradamus warns of US civil war, digital currency, and economic collapse
US to face economic ruin and 'slow motion Civil War' Live Events 'Digital 9/11' and high-profile arrests Trump's moves seen as calculated 'chess pieces' A global order led by the unseen China, Taiwan, and the brewing military crisis The rise of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A man known as the 'Living Nostradamus' has issued a stark warning about the next three years. Athos Salomé, a 38-year-old Brazilian mystic, says the world is heading towards a period of economic collapse, political chaos, and shadowy global claims to have predicted past global events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war in Ukraine, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. He has now shared a set of disturbing forecasts with the Express, pointing to major upheaval between now and to Salomé, the most severe disruptions will take place in the United States. He foresees a large-scale financial collapse triggering instability across the said, 'A slow motion civil war will begin in the US, followed by a mega cyber-attack which will be blamed on China or Russia.'This breakdown, he warns, will not be limited to protests or economic hardship. Instead, it may include a 'Martial Law Light' scenario where militias and radical groups enforce new emergency rules under state control. Salomé also suggested that such a crisis would be 'used to justify censorship and military escalation'.Salomé warns of a staged cyber event on American soil—something he calls a 'false flag attack'. He described it as a 'digital 9/11' in which power grids, banking systems, and internet services could be disrupted for the public reels from the effects, Salomé says new political and military controls will be introduced under the guise of also predicts a dramatic political twist: the arrest of a former US President. 'High probability events between 2024 and 2028 could include the arrest of a former American president – most likely Obama or Bush – on charges of international corruption,' he told the mystic described Donald Trump's years in office as deliberately strategic. He claimed, 'Trump's slew of executive orders since taking office were chess moves that would have long-lasting repercussions for the invisible bureaucratic machine that has been dictating the direction of the US for decades.'Salomé suggested that Trump's ongoing battle with the so-called 'Deep State' could even result in impeachment if he pushes too far. Yet, in his view, Trump is not the only piece on the board. Larger, invisible powers are quietly repositioning the the United States, Salomé painted a larger picture of how global governance is shifting in warned that traditional political leaders may no longer be the ones in charge. Instead, he believes 'invisible transnational groups' are taking control behind the scenes.'While the news repeats localised scandals, the global structure continues to be redesigned,' Salomé said. 'History is written by those who have the pen. And most people don't even know where the ink is.'He called this a period of 'parallel governance', where real power is increasingly exercised away from public scrutiny or democratic Asia, Salomé predicted another flashpoint: a potential invasion of Taiwan by China. He claimed that the United States would likely respond with both cyber and naval action, intensifying the confrontation between global also warned: 'China is waiting for the right moment to strike Europe and America.'According to Salomé, these actions won't necessarily look like traditional warfare. Instead, they may unfold as hybrid campaigns—technological, economic, and one of his most provocative claims concerns the future of predicted that between 2026 and 2027, the US dollar will face what he calls a 'profound shake-up', deliberately triggered by domestic forces. This, he says, will be used to justify the rollout of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).'The crash will be presented as an accident. In reality, it will be a technological reset with a political purpose [leading to] the choreographed collapse of the global financial system,' he told the believes this financial shift is not accidental but planned—a 'reset' designed to rewire how money, power, and influence operate Salomé, the decade ahead is already being shaped by what he calls invisible wars . These conflicts, he says, are 'hybrid, undeclared, and fuelled by orchestrated actions on multiple fronts.'He does not describe this as fantasy or conspiracy—but as a new normal.'It's no longer about conspiracy. It's about parallel governance,' he said. 'The reset is real. We are entering a new era – digital, surveilled, economically redefined – and those who don't understand the rules of the new game will just be pieces.'
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House Republicans' proposed tax on remittances spooks financial sector
Financial institutions are looking to stir up resistance to a Republican proposal to tax cash that migrants send to family members in their home countries ahead of a House vote expected this week. The provision's inclusion in the GOP's massive tax and spending bill caught many in the sector off-guard. Text of the bill released last week would require banks, credit unions and other companies that process so-called remittances to collect information on the sender that confirms they are a US citizen or US national so they can receive a tax credit for 5% of their transaction. Vice President JD Vance sponsored similar legislation as a senator, and Trump signaled in a Truth Social post last month that he sought to 'shut down' the payments altogether. But 'this came totally out of nowhere,' said one cryptocurrency executive, who was granted anonymity to discuss the legislation candidly. Now, 'everyone's just trying to figure it the f*ck out,' a lobbyist said. House Financial Services Chair French Hill, R-Ark., has directed Republicans on his committee to onpass concerns to House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., whose tax-writing panel drafted the language, four people familiar with the talks told Semafor Monday. Smith's office declined to comment. Lobbyists argue the proposal would be incredibly complicated for financial institutions to stand up. They also say that it could spur more customers to use cryptocurrency — plus set a dangerous precedent when it comes to government collection of customer data. 'This is the government surveillance they all say leads them to oppose a Central Bank Digital Currency,' a second lobbyist said. Many conservatives have resisted a CBDC because they say it would enable the party in power to track Americans' hawks are pushing hard for their conference to bring down the bill's price tag, so slashing a provision that raises money is a tough sell. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the remittance tax could raise more than $22 billion between 2025 and 2034 — though there's a chance that number shrinks if customers pivot to using cryptocurrency, since some of those transactions could be excluded. The same conservatives who back this tax are also supportive of efforts to deter undocumented migrants from coming to the US — and striking that citizenship language from the bill could make it harder to win their support. House leaders will need almost every Republican's support to advance the bill this week ahead of their self-imposed deadline of Memorial Day. It's not just the financial sector that's pushing back. Mexico's ambassador to the US sent a letter to House tax writers last week urging them to 'reconsider' the idea, which the official said would 'disproportionately affect those with the least.' He also warned that it could encourage migrants to seek 'informal or unregulated means' — like crypto — to evade the tax. 'It's hard to see this as anything other than a way to harass legal immigrants and increase government surveillance,' Norbert Michel, vice president and director of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, said. 'For relatively little tax revenue, it will make it harder for families to keep their income, discourage hard working people from improving their lives and becoming Americans, and add yet another layer of regulation on financial services companies and law-abiding taxpayers,' Michel while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
RBI to review digital banking regulations, expand lending interface and CBDC pilots
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to overhaul internet and mobile banking regulations and broaden the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) with new features. The central bank is also developing a framework for digital channel resilience and expanding Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilots. Furthermore, the RBI will establish AI ethics guidelines and bolster cybersecurity measures across regulated entities. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Reserve Bank of India RBI ) has announced plans to review the regulatory framework governing internet and mobile banking as part of its agenda for the new year, outlined in its latest annual central bank will also broaden the scope of the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) by including additional loan products and lenders. A new business-to-customer (B2C) functionality will be introduced on the ULI platform, which currently hosts 44 lenders—including banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)—offering over 60 data services across 12 loan categories, such as Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loans, digital cattle loans, and MSME loans.'Building on stakeholder feedback and positive outcomes, we are expanding the platform's reach to incorporate more products, data providers, and lenders,' the RBI addition, the RBI is developing a framework focused on operational resilience for digital channels used by banks and non-banks. It also aims to extend the scope of Central Bank Digital Currency ( CBDC ) pilots in both retail and wholesale segments by introducing new use cases and technological RBI is actively exploring cross-border CBDC pilots, both bilateral and multilateral, to address challenges related to transaction turnaround times, efficiency, and the regulator plans to establish guidelines for the ethical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector and expand the MuleHunter initiative—an AI/ML-based solution designed to identify suspicious mule the growing importance of digital security, the RBI is working on guidelines for digital forensic readiness and will conduct comprehensive thematic reviews on cyber risks across all regulated entities. The central bank also plans to enhance cyber risk mapping and organize phased, cross-sectoral cyber crisis simulation exercises
