Informist, Friday, Jul. 25, 2025

--RBI Malhotra: Trying to popularise rupee

--RBI Malhotra: Popularising rupee may take decades

--RBI Malhotra: Not much work happening on BRICS currency

--RBI Malhotra: Trade deal with US, others in advanced stages

--RBI Malhotra on UK FTA: Should help various sectors of mfg, services

--RBI Malhotra on UK FTA: Should hopefully help us

NEW DELHI - Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Friday that not much work is happening on BRICS currency as of now and India is trying to popularise the rupee. "As of now, there's not much work happening on a BRICS currency. The dollar is going to be here for a longish time because you need some uiversal crossborder currency. It is serving the purpose," he said at the Modern BFSI Summit in Mumbai. "On our part, like other countries, we are trying to popularise the Indian rupee."

The BRICS is a group of 11 countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran. It serves as a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the global south.

At its 2023 summit, the BRICS nations agreed to look at the feasibility of a new common currency. The proposal was put forth by Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva.

Malhotra highlighted that India has signed agreements with many countries for the use of rupee for cross-border transactions. However, he added that popularising the Indian currency for cross border transactions may take decades. "With UAE it's successful, it is operational. We are in talks with Maldives, we have an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with them," he said. "Our effort will be to popularise our own currency. It will happen slowly, it takes years, it takes decades for local currencies to become popular."

India had initiated rupee internationalisation in 2022 to smoothen trade with Russia after the US and other European countries imposed sanctions on Moscow in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine. Following this, the RBI signed memoranda of understanding with the central banks of several other nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Myanmar, to facilitate settlement in local currency.

Talking about the free trade agreement between India and the UK, Malhotra said it should be beneficial for India and help various sectors of manufacturing and services. "That's the way going forward now. Unfortunately, multilateralism seems to have taken a back seat. So, in that sense its good that we have one FTA in place," he said.

India concluded a free trade agreement with the UK on Thursday. Nearly 100% of India's exports to the UK will get a duty-free market access under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. India has committed to cut duty on 90% tariff lines while the UK would slash duty on 99% tariff lines. Malhotra said India needs to do more trade agreements, adding that trade talks with the US are in an advanced stage.

On regulation of cryptocurrency, the governor said there is a group working on it in the government and one needs to wait for its outcome. End

Reported by Pratiksha

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

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