India, the new beacon of hope for the global economy, as described by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has consolidated its position as a global leader in blockchain and Web3 adoption, demonstrating significant progress in many sectors.
The most prominent was the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) Vishvasya-Blockchain technology stack, a framework that provides blockchain as a service (BaaS) through geographically distributed infrastructure. Launched by MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan, the initiative aims to build digital trust and improve service delivery.
The National Blockchain Framework technology stack is designed with distributed infrastructure, core framework functionality, smart contracts and application programming interface (API) gateway, security, privacy and interoperability, as well as ‘a BaaS application development offer. NBF currently supports two permissioned blockchain platforms and is extensible. The technology stack is hosted on geographically distributed infrastructure across NIC data centers located in three Indian cities: Bhubaneswar, Pune and Hyderabad.
“India has made significant progress in blockchain adoption throughout 2024. The launch of Vishwasya – the national blockchain framework – will accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology in the public sector as well as in the private sector. The government’s focus on creating a national blockchain framework is expected to facilitate further integration between various industries, which is expected to improve transparency and efficiency of public services,” said Sharat Chandra, founder of EmpowerEdge Ventures and startup facilitator, at CoinGeek.
“I had the opportunity to participate in the blockchain implementation for the Digital Lenders Association of India (DLAI), a leading fintech industry association that represents the majority of the Indian lending and lending ecosystem. financial technologies. More and more institutions are gearing up to explore blockchain use cases,” added Chandra.
NBFLite for Startups
India also introduced NBFLite, a lightweight blockchain sandbox platform developed for startups and universities for rapid application prototyping, research and capacity building. These technologies have been developed through the collaborative efforts of C-DAC, NIC, IDRBT Hyderabad, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad and SETS Chennai, with support from MeitY.
Simultaneously, India introduced Praamaanik, an innovative blockchain solution for verifying the origin of mobile applications, which leverages blockchain to verify the security of mobile applications.
According to Amit Kumar Gupta, a legal officer at the Supreme Court of India, the country’s introduction of the National Blockchain Framework demonstrates its strong commitment to the emerging technology.
“These initiatives are transforming industries such as land registries, healthcare and supply chain management by providing secure and tamper-proof systems,” Gupta told CoinGeek.
“Companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys have leveraged blockchain to improve transparency and efficiency,” added Gupta.
More and more provincial governments are adopting blockchain
“2024 was a year where India asserted its authority and positioned itself as a global leader in blockchain and Web3 adoption, demonstrating remarkable progress across various sectors,” said Raj Kapoor, founder of the India Blockchain Alliance (IBA), at CoinGeek.
The southern state of Telangana province has reportedly said it will allot land at subsidized rates to blockchain companies. The Telangana government’s draft Blockchain Policy includes research funding and regulatory and policy support as part of its strategy to attract companies and startups in the blockchain sector to establish operations in the state.
“Telangana and Goa have introduced land records on blockchain. The Reserve Bank of India’s innovation center piloted a multi-bank letters of credit trade finance solution. Jharkhand (provincial government) has leveraged blockchain to ensure that all farmers receive correct seed allocation and prevent stray seeds from entering the supply chain. The Uttarakhand government has implemented a blockchain solution to get real-time information on supplies of medical assets in hospitals for effective inventory management,” informed Kapoor.
Blockchain partnerships
This year has also been important for blockchain partnerships and collaborations.
Blockchain For Impact (BFI), a healthcare fund established during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, has strengthened its partnerships with educational institutions to support projects with the potential to revolutionize healthcare. BFI has also partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to strengthen public health practices.
On the other hand, Soulverse, which focuses on building infrastructure for a secure digital identity landscape, has partnered with the IBA to create “programs that make blockchain easy to understand and use” .
“The focus has been on digital trust and the framework has been envisioned and developed by the India Blockchain Alliance with the Soul Wallet at its heart – redefining and reiterating Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) and blockchain-based identities that , in the future, will replace other forms of identification. “, explained Kapoor, the founder of IBA.
Meanwhile, RAK Digital Assets Oasis (RAK DAO), a dedicated free zone created to support and nurture digital asset companies, has partnered with IBA to provide seamless market access for Indian blockchain and Web3 companies to United Arab Emirates. The partnership is expected to generate jobs, accelerate global innovation and adoption of blockchain, while using IBA’s network to connect businesses in the UAE to the more than 115 million digital asset users in India .
Document hosting on blockchain
Another milestone reached this year is the linking of documents from nine federal organizations and provincial governments. In March, blockchain.gov.in, managed by the National Informatics Center (NIC), integrated 19 departments, including the Supreme Court. The website lists documents, such as education certificates, land records and drug supply chains, that have been placed on the blockchain.
The documents come from six provincial governments and three federal government ministries: the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
“India has made commendable progress in blockchain adoption in 2024. The government’s growing interest in decentralized solutions, particularly in areas such as supply chain finance, tokenization and governance, has shown promise. Initiatives such as the Digital India Act and various state-level pilots on supply chain transparency highlight growing institutional interest,” Rohan Sharan, founder of Timechain Labs, a company, told CoinGeek. development of on-chain applications using BSV blockchain technology.
Watch: Exploring Blockchain Use Cases in India
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