The ministry for electronics and information technology (MeitY) released a national strategy on adopting blockchain technology for government systems, especially e-governance services. The 52-page document published on Friday seeks to “create trusted digital platforms through shared blockchain infrastructure” and promote “research and development, innovation, technology and application development” around the technology.
Blockchain is the underlying technology for cryptocurrencies and is being used to create applications for third-generation of the Internet (web3)
The National Strategy on Blockchain provides insights on the government’s strategies and offers recommendations for creating digital platforms.
The ministry has identified 44 key areas where blockchains can be applied, including transfer of land and property, managing digital certificates, pharmaceutical supply chain, e-notary services, e-voting, smart grid management and electronic health record management. The document has also taken into consideration blockchain-based platforms operated by governments in China, Brazil, the UAE and Europe, and highlights various government-led initiatives on blockchain that are under way.
“The potential of blockchain technology may be explored in the proposed public digital platforms in various sectors such as agriculture, health, and energy to meet enhanced security requirements,” it added.
The ministry has also recommended the formation of a National Blockchain Framework that can be utilized in areas such as health, agriculture, education, and finance. According to the document, “geographically distributed national-level shared infrastructure” is needed to “enable citizen services at large scale and enable cross-domain application development”.
The platform’s research components will be developed with intermediate milestones comprising a basic framework for implementation and integration with existing infrastructure and services, reference implementations of real-life projects and sandbox environments for developing and testing applications. “The national strategy on blockchain provides a holistic framework for building a blockchain infrastructure for the nation. We, as an industry, are looking forward to collaborate with the government,” said Ashish Singhal, founder and chief executive officer, Coinswitch Kuber, a crypto exchange.
