During an interview with CNBC that took place today, the Indian Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, opinionated that the reports regarding a blanket ban on crypto were actually overstated. Negotiations are still taking place, but she believes that the end result will not be as harsh.
“Yes, a lot of negotiations, discussions are happening, with Reserve Bank. Obviously, the Reserve Bank will be taking a quorum on how, what kind of unofficial currency, cryptocurrency will have to be planned, and how it has to be regulated. But also, we want to make sure that there’s a window available for all kinds of experiments which will have to take place in the crypto world,” said Sitharaman.
Sitharaman has also said that regulations aren’t going to be as “severe” as it had been reported before. Authorities will “look inward” and take a “very calibrated” stance, unlike the “mixed messages coming in from across the world.”
“The world is moving fast with technology. We can’t pretend that we don’t want it. […] I can only give you this clue: that we are not closing our minds, we are certainly looking at ways in which experimentations can happen in the digital world, in cryptocurrency, and so on.”
Obviously, these comments by Sitharaman made the crypto community in India feel a bit more relaxed as in February it was reported by Bloomberg that the country was working on banning all crypto.
Said ban was heavily criticized internationally, and it was even compared to trying to ban the Internet. Not all companies took rumors too seriously, so they continued with their development, and it seems as if they were right to do so.