10 September. India’s stock-market watchdog, SEBI, is launching a test called Demat 2.0. Three firms have already borrowed about $107 million by selling company debt as tokens. REC raised the equivalent of $52 million on 7 September, from 18 investors. Larsen & Toubro raised the same on the 9th, from four. IIFL raised $2.6 million the same day, from one.

SEBI puts it plainly, The Hindu Business Line reports: the token is the bond. It is not a receipt next to it. The title lives on a register held by the depositories, and payment is in the central bank’s digital rupee, at the same time as the bond is delivered. A retail buyer cannot purchase it yet. For now it is funds and institutions. A market for the public comes later, if the test holds. This is not an Indian bitcoin.

Sources: The Hindu Business Line, The Block. Nothing here is investment advice.