Future of Blockchain Technology In India

NASSCOM in one of its Blockchain reports published in 2019 claimed that the blockchain adoption in India was growing rapidly with blockchain investments across the various industry verticals amounting to a whopping $20 billion. This was further reinstated when Belgium based blockchain giant SettleMint announced its foray in the Indian market with the promise to deliver simplified blockchain solutions. In addition to it, the very popular CoinSwitch Kuber, cryptocurrency trading platform, was launched amidst the pandemic. In addition to this, there is a reported trading volumes amounting to $200-300 million with over 2 lac users. To better understand the scope of blockchain in India, lets deep dive to look at the blockchain adoption landscape as regulated by the government and possibilities that lie ahead.

Benefits of blockchain as identified by NITI Aayog 

Blockchain is a new technology promising immense benefits to NITI Aayog, the policy think tank of the Indian Government, has identified Proof of Concepts through four pilot projects to strengthen the case for the future growth of blockchain in India. These PoCs revolve around four key areas such as:

• Pharmaceutical supply chain
• Agricultural subsidy
• Educational certificate verification
• Transfer of land records

Through these four PoCs, efficacies of blockchain technology have been identified at the central level and these are:

• Reducing intermediaries and promoting direct collaboration amongst counterparts 
• Creating a transparent process flow involving multiple stakeholders
• Creating a digital representation of assets involved 
• Creating immutable records of transactions and digital assets

Though the environment for the proliferation of blockchain is regulated there is increasing dialogue and discussions on greater adoption of this technology. India Inc has mandated four important guiding principles for the adoption of blockchain technology and these are:

• The enterprises need to create a single source of truth for business data in the blockchain network. Refer to one of the pilot projects- Transfer of land records mentioned above. The Chandigarh government-employed blockchain to ensure that every piece of land has a unique ID so that it could be successfully mapped for ownership.
• The blockchain solutions must be created in a manner that important process changes can be made amendable. This is to create a shared view of success. Refer to one of the pilot projects- Pharmaceutical supply chain mentioned above. The pilot project demonstrated the track and trace capabilities of blockchain by creating a system of including a three-tiered barcode system in packaging. These barcodes were to be scanned during each transfer thereby a creating a record for each stakeholder to refer to. 
• The blockchain solutions must be designed to enable seamless integration with the existing legacy systems. Refer to one of the pilot projects- Pharmaceutical supply chain mentioned above. For tracking and tracing of the drugs in the pharma supply chain, the blockchain platform had to be integrated with existing CRM. 
• The usage of smart contracts for ensuring a pre-decided code of conduct between two parties to avoid any violation or breach. These smart contracts need to be hybrid in nature. This means that traditional business clauses can replace parts of the computer created codes to make it more legally compliant. 

Blockchain Possibilities in India 

So, from the above discussion, it is quite clear that blockchain is evolving slow and steady and as per the laws of the land. Globally, four important trends are driving the adoption of blockchain as a technology and it is only a matter of time that the trend cascades to India. These trends are: 

• Blockchain as a Service (BaaS)
• Blockchain-based social networking solution 
• Blockchain and AI collaborative applications 
• Blockchain and IoT collaborative tools 

Hence, the time is right to create a brigade of professionals well versed with the potential of the technology and the legal norms of the land. Well equipped professionals will not only drive the blockchain revolution in India but also create a plethora of opportunities for the future generation. This is one of the most important reasons why increasingly professionals are enrolling in Certificate Programme in Applied Blockchain by IIM Indore. This course holistically looks at this technology and offers all possible resources and knowledge to enable new-age professionals to optimally leverage this technology to create value in the business ecosystem.