The government has encouraged large oil exporters to accept the rupee to settle trades, while the RBI has allowed banks in 18 countries to open special accounts to settle transactions in rupees. But progress on turning the rupee into a hard currency has been slow so far.
According to a source, like UAE, there are talks going on with Indonesia on real-time settlement and trading in local currencies, and the two countries are also talking about linking their fast payment systems.
The government is looking to bring countries that are short of dollars into the mechanism, said a government official and an industry source aware of the development.
The Indian central bank's decision to let importers pay with rupees and exporters be paid in rupees is likely to make trade easier with Russia and South Asian neighbours.