The emergence of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is changing the traditional understanding of money by introducing the possibility that digital currency can carry rules about how, where and when it can be used. India is particularly important in this discussion because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been developing the e-Rupee while the country already has a highly developed digital payment ecosystem through platforms such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The programmability of e₹ can be designed around parameters such as expiry date, geo-location, merchant category codes and merchant identity, with potential applications in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), interest-subvention schemes, lending and defined employee allowances (RBI, 2025). While such features can improve the efficiency and targeting of welfare delivery, they also raise deeper questions about financial autonomy, privacy and inclusion. This paper develops a theoretical framework to examine this emerging policy dilemma. Using a descriptive-analytical and doctrinal research approach based entirely on secondary sources, including RBI publications, international institutional reports, academic literature and recent research on CBDC adoption, the study conceptualises programmable CBDC through three levels: closed-loop conditional CBDC, semi-programmable CBDC and open unconditional CBDC. The paper argues that programmability should not be viewed as inherently beneficial or harmful. Instead, its consequences depend upon the purpose, intensity, duration and institutional control of the conditions attached to digital money. The study develops six theoretical principles: purpose-bounded programmability, proportional programmability, reversible conditionality, privacy by design, financial autonomy and inclusion by design. The framework proposes that stronger programmability should be accompanied by stronger safeguards because restrictions on the use of money can increase administrative efficiency while simultaneously reducing individual discretion and increasing privacy risks. The paper concludes that India should preserve unconditional e₹ as the general-purpose form of digital money while using programmable CBDC selectively for clearly defined public purposes. The study contributes to the CBDC literature by shifting the debate from whether CBDC should be programmable to how much programmability is appropriate for different forms and purposes of digital money.