Following in China's footsteps: Indian government announces support for widespread adoption of blockchain technology

The Indian government has officially announced its support for the development of blockchain technology and the integration of a new national framework. The national-level blockchain framework plan aims to utilize blockchain technology in various industry applications.

According to a document released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of India on Wednesday, the Indian government is actively investing in the demand for shared infrastructure.

Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology

MeitY has identified blockchain technology as an important research area with applications in various industries such as governance, banking, finance, and cybersecurity. MeitY will support a multi-institutional project called the "Blockchain Technology Distributed Center of Excellence" with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) as implementing agencies.

Dhotre further stated:

Given the potential of blockchain technology and the demand for various shared infrastructures, the government is preparing a plan for a national blockchain framework to expand and deploy blockchain-based use cases more widely.

According to reports, Indian authorities are currently piloting a blockchain-driven property registration system in the state of Telangana and other applications aimed at reducing paperwork and digitizing processes, such as academic certificates, hotel registry management, and vehicle certification programs.

Despite the Indian government's clear stance on blockchain and its applications, a proposal drafted in June threatens Indian Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users with imprisonment.

Subhash Chandra Garg, Minister of Economic Affairs, presented a draft that could result in 1 to 10 years of imprisonment without bail for Indians involved in mining, holding, selling, transferring, issuing, or trading cryptocurrencies directly or indirectly.

Indian officials are reportedly trying to eliminate the ambiguity surrounding cryptocurrency regulations in the country by shutting down several exchanges, including Zebpay, which was once India's largest digital asset trading platform.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also prohibited business dealings with entities providing cryptocurrency services since last year.

Despite the strong stance on cryptocurrencies, the recent acquisition of WazirX, an Indian digital asset platform, by Binance has given some hope to the Indian people that the authorities may change their position.

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