Govt of India proposes National Framework to spice up use of Blockchain

Even as the Ministry of Finance is readying to reveal a bill on cryptocurrencies, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released a 52-page document that seeks to create trusted digital platforms via shared blockchain infrastructure and promote research and development, technology, innovation and application development around the technology.

Blockchain is the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies and is being used to create apps for the 3rd-gen of the internet (web3) today.

The document titled ‘National Strategy on Blockchain’ also offers insights on the government strategies and also has recommendations for creating such digital platforms in the future.

As per the document, it states, "This document provides an insight on strategies and recommendations for creating a trusted digital platform using Blockchain Technology (BCT), facilitating trusted service delivery to citizens and businesses and also make India a global leader in terms of research and development and harnessing the benefits of this emerging technology."

MeitY has identified 44 key areas where the blockchain can be applied, which include transfer of property, land, digital certificate management, e-notary services, pharmaceutical supply chains, e-voting, electronic health record management, smart grid management, and more.

The document also takes into consideration blockchain-based platforms created by the Chinese government, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Brazil, Europe and highlights several government led initiatives on Blockchain that are already underway.

Moreover, the MeitY has also recommended the formation of the National Blockchain Framework (NBF), which can be utilized in areas such as finance, agriculture, education and more.

The document also says that a geographically distributed national level shared infrastructure is needed in order to enable citizen services at a large scale and enable cross-document app development.

It also added that the multi-institutional collaborative approach between the industry, government, academia, and R&D labs would be needed.

The document also revealed that the MeitY would work with some other government organizations and stakeholders to implement the strategy.