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Government Of India And NITI Aayog Tries To Implement Blockchain

NITI Aayog, an initiative of the Government of India is trying to build up IndiaChain, which has been hailed as the biggest blockchain network of the country which houses the potential of speeding up contractual enforcement, reducing frauds, boosting the agricultural segment and increasing the transparency level of transactions. IndiaChain shall be tied with another government led digital identification database termed IndiaStack which refers to a set of codes developed for fuelling the Aadhaar unique identification number project.  Officials of NITI Aayog working on the said project recently shared with FactorDaily that the government is firming up regulations for powering India’s biggest blockchain network. However the government shall continue with certain large-scale deployments before the same such as starting with e-signatures of individuals.

 Agriculture as main priority

An executive having long discussions with NITI Aayog for implementing the blockchain network spread across the nation was quoted as saying, “Let’s start with the low hanging fruits first. This is just the beginning of a government-led blockchain initiative… There is a long way to go.” Amitabh Kant, the company CEO presided over the meetings held in between NITI Aayog and its industry stakeholders which started just two months back. A second source working closely on this government backed initiative said that, “two months ago, conceptualising of one common infrastructure for blockchain began.” NITI Aayog has described the hackathon as a think-tank for, “addressing problems in government and enterprise infrastructure, finance, energy markets, supply chain, decentralised Aadhaar identities, information exchange, and more.”

 

Agriculture, electricity distribution and land records which consist of the first phase of IndiaChain operations. Slowly it will start working on the Aadhaar linkup plethora for securing individual identity. The second source has revealed that it is too early to comment on projects of budget, scale and early project milestones. Presently the government is working on the generation of soil health cards meant for agricultural pastures in India. This will bring upon digitization in Indian agricultural sector in terms of crops grown, land quality and crop frequency. A senior official working with NITI Aayog suggested that the soil testing data shall be tracked by making use of blockchain mechanism. “But one land might need nitrogen and another might need sulphate or phosphate. You don’t give the same medicine to every patient,” the official said while emphasizing on the greater goods which the blockchain technology is waiting to bring upon Indian agricultural segment. “There are a lot of challenges. Once there is progress, the secretary of IT and Mr Kant will look at the legal framework,” he added.

 

The crops and vegetables can even be tracked after it reaches the market. The merchant can easily differentiate between products grown organically and those grown using fertilizers. The official pointed out that, “there is a lot of premium that is given (to produce from) a soil which has never used fertilizer.’ The official also shared that Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi has advised NITI Aayog to come up with usage options for small gadgets directed at soil testing. Garrett MacDonald, a blockchain fellow working at Germany-based Energy Web Foundation recently told FactorDaily that, “there needs to be a software on the chip that puts these data on the blockchain.”

 Miscellaneous dealings

After establishing a stronghold in the agricultural segment, the government will look into culturing of data pertaining to rainfall. The official stated that, ‘it is to know how much rain happened where. Then, insurance products can be built… Everything can be put on the blockchain.’ The official also feels that Blockchain can help settle the four million cases of land disputes which have been lying unsettled for years now. Problem areas such as multiple stake claims on same property, mismatch between original and paper estimates can find an easy solution once the blockchain technology becomes a reality. The official has also added that similar work has already begun in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where, “once the document is done (on blockchain), nothing can change in the document. When you buy a land you will get all the documents of all the land since a long time back.”

 

NITI Aayog shall also be looking after the school and college leaving certificates having a wide scope for forgery and duplication threats. Evidence records and documents required in courts can also be managed beautifully by the underlying blockchain mechanism. IndiaChain will bring along open access in electricity distribution which will allow consumers to select from distributors and go with the ones of their choice. The official also said that, “that can be done using blockchain. That is amazing. We are on that track, but we are slow.” The second source also confirmed that, “the second wave of technology disruption is IndiaStack, and that will be in the fintech space. In identity, IndiaChain will complement IndiaStack… It is about how the identity of individuals can be used on blockchain to deliver services.”

Aadhaar integration

Sandeep Goenka, the cofounder of bitcoin exchange Zebpay feels that, “one-time password and biometric has its own challenges (during transactions)… verification of Aadhaar for every transaction can be done on blockchain.” Market watchers believe that IndiaChain will have a huge role to play in building up the level of trust among communities, individuals and the government as a whole. Sriram Raghavan, the director of IBM Research stated that, “blockchain is a way to infuse trust in business networks… (but) you will need to do some rip and replace as a new digital network is built in India.” However, the second source rightfully exclaimed that, “the government will have to find ways to hide the bids… Also, the price at which a property is sold should not be visible to others,” given blockchain is an open ledger available for everyone’s viewing. Right now it’s a concept, but once there is a use case, we can call it as the first product of IndiaChain. These are all uncharted territory,” concluded the executive.

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