Mumbai, August 18, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Cash in circulation in India continues to grow despite the rapid adoption of digital payments, with demand remaining particularly strong in rural and semi-urban areas and among low-income groups, older people and small businesses, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Shirish Chandra Murmu has said.
Speaking at an event organised by Bank Indonesia in Jakarta on August 13, Murmu said currency in circulation was growing at double-digit rates even as cash accounted for a declining share of individual transactions.
The contrasting trends, he said, were making future demand for currency more difficult to predict and adding to the challenges involved in planning banknote production and distribution.
“Currency in circulation continues to grow at double-digit rates even as cash’s share of individual transactions declines, thanks to growing digital payment adoption. That combination makes future demand harder to predict, which complicates our planning for production and distribution capacity,” Murmu said.
He stressed that cash remained an important component of India’s payment ecosystem and that maintaining public confidence in physical currency was essential.
“Cash remains a significant mode of payment in the Indian economy, and preserving trust in it, through clean notes, secure logistics, and a currency ecosystem people can rely on, is central to preserving monetary sovereignty itself,” he said.
According to Murmu, the RBI has been producing around 28-30 billion banknotes annually in recent years across six denominations, while disposing of approximately 21 billion notes each year. India currently has about 176 billion banknotes in circulation.
Murmu noted that the figure compares with around 56 billion US dollar bills and 30 billion euro banknotes that were in circulation at the end of last year, while cautioning that India’s higher number is partly due to its denomination mix, which is weighted towards lower-value notes.
The RBI is also examining ways to increase the durability of banknotes, including surface coatings and the possible use of polymer notes for lower denominations.
The central bank is simultaneously working to reduce the environmental footprint of the cash cycle by improving distribution efficiency and adopting better methods for disposing of banknote briquettes, Murmu said.
FOLLOW NOW
