India to take a considered view on crypto, says Nirmala Sitharaman

moneycontrol.com:

Flagging concerns over likely misuse of crypto, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on April 27 said that India will take a considerate decision on regulation around the virtual currency.

During an interaction at Stanford University, she said, "The decision on crypto will not be rushed through,"

"It will have to take its time…all of us to be sure that at least with a given available information, we’re taking the decern decision. It can’t be rushed through,” she said.

Also Read: FM Nirmala Sitharaman assures investors of addressing pain points to encourage investments

The minister clarified that the government is open to promote innovation and well-grounded progress made in the distributed ledger technologies, which are coming in the blockchain.

"So, our intention is in no way to hurt this (innovation around crypto)…but (we need to) define for ourselves…,” she said.

So, these are some of the concerns, not just India, but many countries of the world have and are also discussed in global, multilateral platforms, she added.

Earlier on April 19, the finance minister had said that biggest risk of cryptocurrency could be money laundering and its use for financing terror.

"I think regulation using technology is the only answer. Regulation using technology will have to be so adept, that it has to be not behind the curve, but be sure that it is on top of it. And that's not possible if any one country thinks that it can handle it. It has to be across the board," she had said.

India is planning to introduce central bank-backed digital currency or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

Sitharaman, in her Budget speech on February 1, had announced that the digital rupee or CBDC would be issued by the RBI in the coming fiscal year.

She had also