‘Disruptive’ Blockchain Tech Requires Rapid Adaptation: India’s Prime Minister
The most powerful public official from the world’s largest democracy has bullishly labeled ‘disruptive’ blockchain technology to bring seismic changes to India’s society.
Speaking at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2018 today, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi stated :
“Disruptive technologies such as Blockchain and the IoT (Internet of Things), will have a profound impact in the way we live and work. They will require rapid adaptation in our workplaces.”
The country’s foremost politician was speaking at the event attended by representatives of over 80 countries’ IT industry associations, altogether representing over 90% of the world’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry as the WITSA consortium.
During the conference, NASSCOM, India’s primary IT trade association, launched a platform to develop skills in eight varied technologies including blockchain. NASSCOM previously established a special interest group to explore use cases for blockchain technology in both financial and non-financial industries while educating and informing the public about the innovative decentralized technology.
In adding to prime minister Modi’s approach to embrace blockchain technology, India’s minister of law and justice and electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad stated today:
“Digital empowerment can only happen if there is digital inclusion. With the advent of new technologies like AI, Blockchain and IoT, reskilling of young professionals is critical.”
The remarks come within weeks of India’s foremost policy-making institute and think tank revealing its endeavor to explore blockchain applications in a number of industries including education, agriculture and healthcare. Last month, the National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) unveiled plans to launch a number of proofs-of-concept (PoC) trials.
The research arm of India’s central bank has notably stated that blockchain technology had “matured enough” to be the core driver to support the digitization of India’s fiat currency, the rupee. That significant endorsement was over a year ago. Since then, the research arm has developed a new blockchain platform for multiple applications in India’s financial industry.
In other blockchain-specific endeavors in the country, India’s largest bank (also state-owned) began outlining its roadmap to introduce blockchain technology for a number of financial processes in late 2017. India’s securities regulator and watchdog SEBI installed its own committee to explore blockchain solutions last year whereas the FinTech-forward south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is already developing blockchain applications in a number of areas including land registry and citizen data storage.
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