The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is seeing increased use of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and Unified Lending Interface (ULI) and their adoption is on the rise, said RBI Deputy Governor Rohit Jain on Wednesday.

“We are making good progress. The adoption of both CBDC and ULI is increasing. They are not pilots any more. They are actually on the ground being used and we are following up with the banks for increasing the use cases of CBDC and ULI,” Mr Jain said.

Confirming that it has been engaged with various state governments for increased adoption of ULI; he said “we expect a lot more usage and popularity of both CBDC and ULI.”

CBDC -- Digital Rupee or e₹ in India, a form of India’s sovereign currency and backed directly by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) -- is being used for actual transactions, including for cross border payment, specific government schemes, direct usage and transfer to particular segment.

“All of these being expanded which will lead to increased adoption and usage,” he said.

Highlighting that as many as 12 states have already digitised their land records and others are doing it, Mr Jain said a lot of interest has been shown by state governments to use CBDC and ULI. “We are in constant dialogue with state governments the increase the use of CBDC and ULI,” he added.

The retail CBDC is designed to be used in daily transaction and shopping by the general public, while the wholesale CBDC is used by banks for large inter-bank settlements and payments to state government accounts.

ULI, a public infrastructure like UPI, has been introduced by the RBI to help borrowers to get loans faster and easily, while banks can check the borrower’s data like land records and tax papers before sanctioning and disbursing loans.

Published - August 05, 2026 06:06 pm IST