The initiative could irritate the US, which has warned against any attempt to bypass the dollar; US President Donald Trump has previously said the BRICS alliance is “anti-American” and threatened to impose tariffs on its members. | Photo credit: istock.com
The RBI has recommended to the government to include a proposal for linking central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on the agenda for the 2026 BRICS summit, the sources said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
India will host the summit, which will take place later this year. If the recommendation is accepted, a proposal to link the digital currencies of BRICS members would be introduced for the first time. The BRICS organization includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The initiative could irritate the US, which has warned against any attempt to bypass the dollar.
US President Donald Trump has previously said the BRICS alliance is “anti-American” and threatened to impose tariffs on its members.
The RBI, India’s central government and the central banks of China, Brazil and Russia did not respond to emails seeking comment. The South African central bank declined to comment.
The RBI’s proposal to link BRICS CBDCs for cross-border trade finance and tourism has not been reported earlier.
BUILDING BRIDGES
The RBI’s proposal builds on a 2025 statement at a BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, which urged interoperability among members’ payment systems to make cross-border transactions more efficient.
The RBI has publicly expressed interest in linking India’s digital rupee with other countries’ CBDCs to expedite cross-border transactions and strengthen global use of the Indian currency. However, the country has said its efforts to promote global use of the rupee are not aimed at promoting de-dollarization.
While none of the BRICS members have fully launched their digital currencies, all five major members have conducted pilot projects.
India’s digital currency – called the e-rupee – has attracted a total of 7 million retail users since its launch in December 2022, while China has pledged to boost international use of the digital yuan.
The RBI has encouraged the adoption of the e-rupee by enabling offline payments, providing programmability for government subsidy transfers and allowing fintech companies to offer digital currency wallets.
For the BRICS digital currency links to be successful, elements such as interoperable technology, governance rules and ways to manage imbalanced trading volumes would be among the topics discussed, one of the sources said.
The source warned that reluctance among members to adopt technological platforms from other countries could delay work on the proposal and that concrete progress would require consensus on technology and regulations.
One idea being explored to manage potential trade imbalances is the use of bilateral foreign exchange swaps between central banks, both sources said.
Previous attempts by Russia and India to increase trade in their local currencies have hit roadblocks. Russia amassed large deposits of the Indian rupee that it had limited use of, prompting India’s central bank to allow the investment of such deposits in local bonds.
Weekly or monthly settlements for transactions through the swaps are proposed, the second source said.
LONG ROAD
Founded in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, the BRICS later expanded to include South Africa and has since expanded to include newer members such as the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Indonesia.
The bloc has returned to the spotlight thanks to Trump’s revived trade war rhetoric and tariff threats, including warnings aimed at countries joining the BRICS. At the same time, India has drawn closer to Russia and China as it faced trade frictions with the US
Previous attempts to make the BRICS a major economic counterbalance have encountered hurdles, including the ambition to create a common BRICS currency, an idea put forward by Brazil but subsequently rejected.
While interest in CBDCs globally has been dampened by the increasing adoption of stablecoins, India continues to position its e-rupee as a safer, more regulated alternative.
CBDCs “do not pose many of the risks associated with stablecoins,” RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said last month.
“In addition to facilitating illicit payments and circumventing controls, stablecoins raise significant concerns for monetary stability, fiscal policy, banking intermediation and system resilience,” Sankar said.
India fears the widespread use of stablecoins could fragment national payments and weaken its digital payments ecosystem, Reuters reported in September.
Published on January 19, 2026
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