Guest post: Jesse Chenard, CEO, MonetaGo
There are a number of Hyperledger members that are active in India today including Deloitte, IBM, Intain Fintech Pte, Investrata Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (IFSE), Kerala Blockchain Academy, MonetaGo, National Stock Exchange of India, R3, and Wipro. The amount of blockchain-related activity in the emerging market is actually not that surprising as there are a number of reasons why India in particular is ripe for adoption.
Government Support
One of the most powerful reasons for blockchain adoption is due to support from the Indian government. Interest would likely be hampered without the regulators and related bodies deciding to explore this new frontier. Indeed, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made numerous statements about the potential of blockchain. The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) engaged with companies such as MonetaGo to understand the functionality which distributed ledgers could provide. Even at the state level, government entities have encouraged entire industries to explore new potential products and their implications. Without this kind of support, it can be difficult for innovation to flourish.
Digital Infrastructure
Given India’s focus on a digital infrastructure supported by both policy and technological innovation, it is not surprising that this is where one of the first enterprise blockchain implementations occurred. The country has been quick in moving toward a digital economy with initiatives like Aadhaar, Demonetization, and the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST). ResearchAndMarkets.com recently reported that the digital adoption in India is one of the major factors driving Blockchain technology adoption.
Technological Sophistication of workforce
Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, confederation of Indian Industry notes, “Given its size and innovation development, India has the potential to make a true difference to the global innovation landscape in the years to come.” Additionally, ResearchAndMarkets.com notes 56% of Indian businesses are moving towards Blockchain technology, making the technology a part of their core business. As a result, there is increasing demand in relevant blockchain related skill sets which have led to the launch of numerous educational initiatives. The latest to introduce such a program is the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Widespread Fraud
Unfortunately in recent times, India has been rife with frauds and scandals. The most prominent example recently was with PNB Bank and Nirav Modi. This type of incident was a clear example of systems within banking institutions being siloed. Because there was no communication layer between the business units providing the Letters of Undertaking and the banks own treasury, and because there was no Business Process Management (BPM) system in place which could ensure that the risk associated weren’t getting out of control, PNB was defrauded of $2 Billion. Blockchain is precisely the type of technology which is able to help facilitate this type of BPM and provide crystal clear audibility at every step of a transaction.
Of course the Indian market does have its own unique set of challenges that affect business and technology initiatives in this emerging economy. For example, changes in existing regulations may result in some blockchain developers leaving India to move abroad for work on projects in environments with different laws.
On balance, optimism is high with respect to blockchain technology adoption in India. If your organization has made forays into the market, please share your successes and best practices with the community. Stay tuned as MonetaGo and other Hyperledger members report on the ever-increasing momentum of Production deployments in India.