Amid the growing hold of cryptocurrencies across the world and suggestions that India could develop its own digital currency, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that such a decision has to be thought through. Citing the example of El Salvador, which adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, she said that the public took to the streets against the move.
"It’s not a question of literacy or understanding – it’s also a question of to what extent this is a transparent currency; is it going to be a currency available for everyone? El Savador may be an exceptional place where they tried some experimentation. There are other countries that are talking about the central bank having a legitimate cryptocurrency. That could be a possibility," Sitharaman said in an interview with Hindustan Times' Editor-in-Chief Sukumar Ranganathan.
The finance minister said that a lot of consultation has taken place on the issue of cryptocurrencies in India, adding that the views of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were also taken. "This is not an era where you can say I don’t care about what’s happening, or we don’t want to do anything. At the same time, are we yet ready to go the El Salvador way? We have to be sure that a futuristic thing can’t be shut out," said Sitharaman.
When asked if India should have its own cryptocurrency, Sitharaman said, "We have to evolve something suitable for our systems. India has the strength of the technology; fintech gives us the command over the instrumentalities with which you can play; our economy is full of possibilities. So we have to be cautious; but we have to think it through."