Chandigarh, August 12, 2026: Chandigarh is set to take another significant step in digital governance with the launch of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – Digital Rupee (e₹) for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) on August 14, 2026.

The launch event will be presided over by Shri Gulab Chand Kataria, Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, U.T. Chandigarh. Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, will be the Chief Guest while Shri Pralhad Joshi, Hon’ble Union Minister of Education, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and New & Renewable Energy, Government of India, will be the Special Guest.

The event will be held in the august presence of Smt. Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya, Hon’ble Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India and Shri Manish Tewari, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Chandigarh.

The initiative marks the next evolution in welfare delivery — from physical distribution of subsidised foodgrains to Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and now to purpose-bound digital delivery through CBDC.

The CBDC pilot was initiated in Gujarat, Puducherry and Chandigarh as part of efforts to explore the use of Digital Rupee for targeted welfare delivery. Building on this pilot, Chandigarh will be the first Union Territory in the country to undertake a full-fledged roll-out of CBDC-based DBT for food subsidy under PMGKAY beneficiaries.

Chandigarh was among the pioneers in implementing the DBT model for food subsidy in September 2015, moving from physical distribution of subsidised foodgrains to direct transfer of subsidy into the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of entitled households. The CBDC initiative builds on this existing DBT framework and seeks to make welfare delivery more transparent, traceable, efficient and purpose-bound.

Under the new model, the Digital Rupee can be programmed for a defined purpose and within specified conditions. In the case of food subsidy, the digital benefit will be purpose-bound for the purchase of entitled foodgrains such as wheat and rice from authorised/empanelled merchants.

The key innovation is programmability. CBDC enables the benefit to remain linked to its intended purpose, strengthening the assurance that the intended benefit reaches the intended beneficiary for the intended purpose.

For beneficiaries, the process is designed to remain simple. The beneficiary receives the digital food subsidy, visits an empanelled merchant, scans the QR code and completes the transaction for the purchase of entitled foodgrains.

The initiative is aimed at strengthening transparency, traceability, accountability and efficiency in welfare delivery while ensuring an inclusive and simple citizen experience.

As part of the launch, the Hon’ble Union Minister will also remotely launch the CBDC-based initiative for Dadra and Nagar Haveli from Chandigarh, further marking the expansion of purpose-bound digital delivery of food subsidy through CBDC.

The initiative represents a continued effort by Chandigarh Administration to use technology to improve public service delivery while building upon the existing DBT framework.

Physical Foodgrains → DBT → CBDC

Physical delivery → Direct benefit → Digital and purpose-bound benefit

The event is being jointly organised by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India and Chandigarh Administration.