[India Launches $620 Billion Corporate Bond Tokenization Pilot, Three Companies Raise Approximately $1.07 Billion] BlockBeats News, on September 14, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently launched the 'Demat 2.0' pilot program, introducing corporate bond issuance and settlement into a permissioned distributed ledger system. The initiative targets India's approximately $620 billion corporate bond market. So far, three companies—REC, Larsen & Toubro, and IIFL Finance—have collectively raised 102.5 billion rupees (approximately $1.07 billion) through this system. Among them, REC issued India's first tokenized corporate bond on September 7, raising 50 billion rupees. The system connects tokenized bonds with the RBI's wholesale digital rupee, enabling synchronized delivery of bonds and funds through a unified market interface. It also leverages smart contracts to automate interest payments and principal redemptions. SEBI stated that tokenization will not alter the original legal terms, credit ratings, or investor protection mechanisms of the bonds. Future plans include enabling secondary trading and retail investor participation. [Original Link]