Airtel Payments Bank, IDEMIA, and Nokia brand phone maker HMD Global have joined forces to bring Central Bank Digital Currency to feature phones in India, according to a joint statement released on Sept 6. According to the statement, all three organisations would collaborate over the next few months to introduce an advanced offline payment system that would facilitate the use of the digital rupee on feature phones while also promoting financial inclusion.

"Our collaboration with IDEMIA and Nokia demonstrates our unwavering commitment to driving financial inclusion in the country." "We are confident that once we move past the design phase and launch the solution commercially with all necessary approvals, it will play a critical role in advancing financial service accessibility," said Prasad Routray, Corporate Business and Alliances Head, Airtel Payments Bank.

According to industry estimates, India has approximately 25 crore feature phone users.

According to the statement, for the first time in the industry, an attempt is being made to bring CBDC payments to feature phones via an application interface. IDEMIA will provide an offline layer as part of this collaboration to ensure instant and secure transactions without the need for online Validation.

"Our alliance with Nokia and Airtel Payments Bank is poised to provide valuable insights and contributions to the evolution of offline retail CBDC systems," said Amit Kakatikar, SVP Payment Solutions at IDEMIA.

According to the statement, the technology will work with the digital rupee in India as well as any other solution, decentralised or centralised, token or account-based, developed in-house by a central bank or independent software vendors.

Users will be able to pay using an ingenious and cost-effective feature phone once the solution is commercially available, extending the accessibility of offline payment functionalities to a larger population.