Is Indian Government ready to Regulate & Authorize Crypto?

Image Source: http://www.scmr.com/article/apqc_infographic_blockchain_promises_supply_chain_improvements

First it was the Andhra Government announcing it for Land Records and Transport, now it is the Kerala Government announcing that it is going to use blockchain to track the Fish and Milk supplies. Every day in and out, the number of use cases planned for execution and implementation using blockchain is increasing. Do you still think Indian Government and RBI can still continue to hold their hawkish stand towards cryptocurrencies or the blockchain in general? At least I don’t think so. After reading these declarations from the state governments, I am rather more optimistic that Indian Central government is now warming up to declare the full utilization of blockchain power across length and breadth of this diverse nation. The time is not far when every item you buy whether from the departmental stores, medicines from pharmaceutical shop, vegetables & fruits from marketplace, land records, government schemes for the needy etc. are all tracked on blockchain.

But the question arises are we all prepared for all this to take effect? Is the environment conducive enough to implement blockchain in every sector with 100% success. I do not think so. This is why Indian government has been waiting on the sidelines to study the use cases by implementing it on a smaller sample and then taking a call to implement on wider audience. Secondly, with all the commerce taking place on blockchain, can the banks be kept aloof from all the springing businesses, which are built around providing solutions in the blockchain industry? For any business, I think that traditional banks take the centre place in the ecosystem and have to be thoroughly integrated within that system. How can then the government think of declaring ties of companies dealing in cryptocurrencies illegal with the national banks? These are the questions which come to my mind and can be answered only when the Indian Government clarifies the stand completely and that too in favor of thriving blockchain community.

Kerala has announced that it will make its crop insurance scheme smarter and fool-proof, ensuring quick processing and settlement of claims to farmers suffering crop losses. This will be implemented through the Kerala department and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC). In the dairy sector, the project will ensure speedy delivery of high quality milk by continuously monitoring production, procurement and distribution through an electronic ledger. Each component of the supply network will have a separate ID number, using which the source and quality of the product can be checked at every point of the chain. New technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) will be employed and RFID Tags and mobile applications will be used to monitor the movement of trucks and refrigerated tanks to make sure they adhere to fixed parameters like temperature in which the products are to be kept. Supply of vegetables and fish is another key area where the new technology is to be introduced, where farms and fish-landing spots will be linked with packaging centers using geo-coded images to strengthen the supply chain.

Andhra Pradesh is already accounting for 60 percent of Adhaar (Unique Identity Card issued to Indian Citizens) based transactions and is using technology extensively for service delivery. It wants to maintain its lead in blockchain space too and thus has launched a pilot to prevent tampering of land records, which have been digitized and are available online. It is even promoting multiple blockchain related courses in its universities and want to become the Blockchain technology hub not only for India but for the entire world similar to what we did in software in past two decades.

The Governments have to think about the positive aspects of this newly emerging technology in the sense that it can generate huge employment and business opportunities for the nations young population. The Fintech industry is also warming up to implement blockchain in their International transactions in full scale and have already started pilots with few prominent companies in this space. With so much happening all around, how can one be pessimistic that the Indian Government will come up with a regulation to only kill crypto and not promoting the technology? Rather the time is ripe to think out of box solutions and bank upon the innumerable use cases to where we can apply blockchain to spread its benefit.

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