Does Information Nudge Make e₹ More Adoptable? Examining the Adoption and Willingness to Shift to Digital Currency in India

Central banks around the globe are rapidly progressing towards digital currency. However, its adoption rate has been consistently low among both emerging and advanced economies. This study examines the user adoption of Indian digital currency, e₹ based on primary survey conducted between July 2025 to September 2025 of 751 respondents. The study adopted TAM for the first time in the digital currency domain and the study stands novel in blending the nudge theory with stated preference method in finance literature to understand the willingness to shift to e₹ in India. Using binary logit regression, we test two hypotheses. Result show that apart of socio-economic predictors, adoption of e₹ is significantly influenced by digital financial literacy. With respect to willingness to shift to e₹, the study found TAM constructs like perceived convenience, perceived belief in the study as the key predictors. Unlike the current literature, our study finds that, trust is not a significant predictor in e₹ adoption. The findings highlight the importance of digital financial literacy and behavioral intensions, apart from technical viability, as the key factors in digital currency adoption in India.