India is the most explicit APAC jurisdiction on a single point: the rupee-on-chain answer is the central bank, not a private issuer. The rbi Digital Rupee (e-Rupee, e₹) wholesale pilot has been running since November 2022 for settlement of secondary government securities trades, and the retail pilot since December 2022 across sbi, hdfc, icici, Yes Bank, axis and other early participants, with programmable money use cases and offline functionality layered on as of late 2025. Private rupee-pegged stablecoins are not authorised, full stop. sebi is opening to securities tokenisation through sandbox and consultation work but ships sequentially. The closest comparator is China: same CBDC-first preference, similar private-issuance posture, very different external positioning. Against Singapore the contrast is sharper: where MAS treats SGD stablecoin issuance as a regulated private activity, India routes the same intent through the central bank.

Regulatory posture

rbi is the lead regulator and the operator of the rails. It owns the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007 perimeter, which covers UPI, NEFT, RTGS, and the Digital Rupee. It also owns the supervisory posture toward private cryptoassets, which has been hostile-leaning since the 2018 banking circular (overturned by the Supreme Court in 2020) and has not warmed materially since. Within the PSS Act framework, CBDC fits cleanly because it is central bank money on a central bank ledger; a private rupee stablecoin, by contrast, would need either a new perimeter or recharacterisation under existing categories that the RBI has not been willing to grant. That structural fit is why the policy direction has been consistent rather than incidental.

sebi handles the tokenised securities slice through regulatory sandbox and consultation papers rather than a standalone framework, with MFs and AIFs the natural early candidates given existing investor-protection apparatus. The Ministry of Finance owns the broader cryptoasset perimeter, including the 30% tax on Virtual Digital Asset gains and the 1% TDS on transfers above thresholds (both implemented in 2022, both materially suppressing domestic trading volume). fiu ind supervises VDA Service Provider registration under the PMLA. The operating signal across all four bodies is consistent: build rupee-on-chain through the state, channel investor-facing tokenisation through SEBI's existing wrappers, treat private cryptoassets as a perimeter to police rather than license.

Active pilots

• Digital Rupee wholesale (since November 2022). Settlement of secondary-market government-securities transactions; participant set has expanded across primary dealers and major banks. The natural cash leg for any future tokenised-bond trial in India.
• Digital Rupee retail (since December 2022). Live across major banks; programmable money use cases (purpose-bound payments such as agricultural input vouchers) and offline functionality added through the pilot. Transaction volumes have grown materially as of late 2025 though still small as a share of total retail payments.
• SEBI tokenisation activity. Sandbox participation and consultation papers on tokenised securities; no single named framework yet, with MFs and AIFs flagged as the early-issuance candidates.
• npci cross-border UPI. Live links with Singapore (PayNow) via NPCI International, UAE, France PoS partnership. Not strictly tokenisation, but the closest live cross-border retail-rails infrastructure and the natural reference point for future e-Rupee corridor work.
• BIS-coordinated work. India is part of Project Nexus, the BIS Innovation Hub Singapore-led multilateral fast-payments interlinking initiative; tokenisation-specific BIS participation is to be tracked.

Key institutions

• rbi. Central bank, operator of the Digital Rupee, primary supervisor under the PSS Act 2007.
• sebi. Securities regulator, owner of the tokenised-securities perimeter via sandbox and consultation.
• npci. Operator of UPI and NPCI International cross-border links.
• mof india. Ministry of Finance; cryptoasset taxation (30% VDA gain tax, 1% TDS) and broader perimeter policy.
• fiu ind. AML/CTF supervisor; VDA Service Provider registration under the PMLA.

Open questions

• Whether retail e-Rupee converts from pilot to general availability, and on what programmability terms (purpose-bound payments enabled by default, opt-in, or restricted).
• Whether SEBI moves from sandbox to a full tokenised-securities framework, and which asset class (MFs, AIFs, listed equities, government securities) goes first.
• Whether the 1% TDS regime persists at current levels, and the implication for domestic tokenised-secondary-market liquidity if it does.
• Whether agentic-commerce experiments on UPI extend to e-Rupee programmable money, and which regulator owns the supervisory line where an AI agent transacts on behalf of a verified user.
• Whether NPCI International's bilateral links evolve into a tokenisation-aware corridor, particularly with Singapore, where MAS-side tokenisation infrastructure is materially more mature.

Related

• Stablecoin types for why the INR private-stablecoin path is closed and the CBDC route is the operative answer.
• Tokenisation, defined for the legal-control plumbing relevant to tokenised securities under SEBI.
• hong kong, japan, singapore, china for comparative regulatory posture.
• BIS, BIS Innovation Hub for Project Nexus and related cross-border work.