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Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar on Wednesday said that the central bank will launch its digital currency as a pilot project this year.

Addressing the India Ideas Summit, he said that Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is the most efficient system for cross-border payments.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the Union Budget that CBDC would be launched during 2022-23.

He, however, reiterated that RBI is not aiming for a cashless society but is keen to give customers viable alternatives.

Sankar further said that Unified Payments Interface or UPI is likely to become more internationalised.

The RBI, he informed, is trying to calibrate policy on digital payments as per the feedback being received from stakeholders.

Highlighting the growing significance of digital payments segment in the country, Sankar noted that it was growing at the rate of 40 to 50 per cent per annum.

The RBI Deputy Governor at the same time informed that the central bank is trying to safeguard data privacy under the ambit of digital infrastructure.

It is also working on scaling up technological stability of the digital payments infrastructure, he added.

In this connection, Sankar said that RBI is also focussing on scaling up fraud management.