Airtel Payments Bank, identity technology company IDEMIA and Nokia brand phone maker HMD Global have joined hands to bring Central Bank Digital Currency on feature phones in India, a joint statement said on Wednesday.
All three organizations would be working together to introduce an advanced offline payment system over the next few months that would facilitate the use of the digital rupee on feature phones and promote financial inclusion, the statement said.
According to the industry estimate, there are about 25 crore feature phone users in India. For the first time in the industry, an attempt is being made to bring CBDC payments on feature phones via an application interface, the statement said. Under this collaboration, IDEMIA will offer an offline layer to ensure instant and secure transactions without the need for online validation.
The technology will work with the digital rupee in India, and with any other solution, decentralized or centralized, token or account-based, developed in-house by a central bank or independent software vendors, the statement said.
Once the solution is commercially made available, users will be able to pay using an ingenious and cost-effective feature phone extending the accessibility of offline payment functionalities to a wider population.
HMD Global VO for India and APAC Ravi Kunwar said once this is launched over the next few months, Nokia feature phones with the digital rupee will empower users with latest technology and is in line with the government’s inclusive technology for all.
