How blockchain is driving social impact and transforming India

By Rahul Pagidipati

Blockchain technology has long been associated with the crypto world and is the backbone of the entire crypto industry. Its transformative potential extends far beyond the realm of finance and can be incredibly powerful in developing countries like India. Blockchain adoption in India could reach a staggering 46% by 2026, indicating huge prospects for boosting the local economy. By harnessing the power of blockchain, India can drive significant social impact across various sectors, including healthcare and governance.

India’s National Blockchain Framework

India has taken a significant step towards adopting blockchain by working towards building a national blockchain infrastructure under the National Blockchain Framework. The framework includes blockchain-as-a-service, geographically distributed nodes, awareness raising and human resource development, among other initiatives.

The government has also set an ambitious goal of enabling ‘Made in India’ blockchain technology for global use over the next five years, focusing on convergence across blockchain, IoT, cloud and AI, commonly known as the BICA stack . The ultimate goal is to facilitate the development of use cases at the national level that exploit the full potential of the BICA stack.

The government plans to establish the National Blockchain Portal and geographically distributed blockchain infrastructure as part of this effort. It also aims to integrate MSMEs and startups, develop cross-border applications, standardize the India Stack for blockchain adoption and integrate blockchain technology with a few national services. The government’s efforts in this regard can have a transformative impact, driving innovation and growth in the country, while addressing critical challenges such as poverty, corruption and lack of transparency.

How is Blockchain driving social change in India?

Financial inclusion

One of the significant challenges we face is financial inclusion. Blockchain is revolutionizing the financial landscape by providing access to banking services for millions of unbanked citizens. With just a smartphone and an internet connection, individuals without bank accounts can now easily open an account and access various financial services. It plays a crucial role in enabling peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries. With blockchain-based payment systems, individuals can transfer funds within seconds, without the need for traditional banking infrastructure. Blockchain also enables loan approval in just a few hours, a process that traditionally took weeks or months. This technology ensures trust, security and efficiency throughout the loan process, especially in rural areas where access to financial services has traditionally been challenging.

Supply Chain Management

The supply chain is the backbone of any business, and ensures smooth and efficient movement of goods and services. However, supply chains in developing countries can be opaque, which leads to challenges in tracking products and ensuring ethical procurement. This is where blockchain comes in. According to the World Economic Forum, streamlining information through blockchain could potentially increase global trade by more than $1 trillion over the next five years.

Blockchain technology has emerged as a game-changer in the supply chain in India, due to its ability to provide an immutable and transparent record of every transaction. Companies such as Walmart and IBM have already implemented blockchain in several countries to track the supply chain of products, to ensure ethical procurement and production of goods from farm to table. As the adoption of blockchain in India continues to grow, supply chain management is poised for a significant transformation, resulting in greater transparency, efficiency and growth in the sector. With its use, India can undoubtedly expect a significant boost in development and prosperity in the years to come.

Health Service

Blockchain is trying to revolutionize healthcare in India by addressing various challenges like transparency, privacy and medical record keeping. Currently, the healthcare system in India is fragmented and lacks a unified database, making it challenging to access patient information across different healthcare providers. Blockchain helps create a decentralized and secure database that can store patients’ medical records, allowing easy and secure access to patient information across the healthcare system. This helps reduce medical errors, improve patient care, and prevent duplicate testing and treatment.

In addition, blockchain also helps in combating counterfeit medicines, a significant problem in India. Blockchain-based solutions can trace the entire supply chain of medicines from manufacturer to end consumer, ensuring that patients receive authentic medicines. Blockchain-based solutions can also help improve clinical trials by creating an immutable and transparent overview of each step in the process, ensuring that the data is accurate and tamper-proof. This can help bring new medicines to market faster and more efficiently. Furthermore, blockchain can facilitate secure and fast processing of payment and insurance claims, making healthcare more accessible and affordable for patients.

Identity management

In India, identity management is a significant challenge affecting millions of people who lack access to formal identification documents. This not only hinders their ability to access essential services such as healthcare and education, but also poses a threat to their privacy and security. To address this issue, the government has announced plans to leverage new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and machine learning to strengthen Aadhaar, the national identification system, and make it more secure and privacy-oriented.

Furthermore, many startups in India are recognizing the possibilities of blockchain technology to solve the problem of identity management. They develop secure and portable digital identities that can be used across different services, providing a simple and effective way for people to prove their identity without the need for formal identification documents. With the use of blockchain in identity management, the future of India’s digital economy looks bright, promising increased security and privacy for all citizens.

Future prospects

The country’s use of blockchain could change traditional industries and drive greater transparency and accountability. In addition to the areas mentioned earlier, such as finance, supply chain management and healthcare, Blockchain can potentially transform other industries, such as real estate, agriculture and education. For example, the Indian government could use Blockchain to facilitate the purchase and sale of real estate by providing a transparent and immutable record of land ownership. This will increase transparency, reduce fraud and increase investor confidence in the property industry.

Similarly, the use of blockchain in agriculture can improve supply chain management, reduce food waste and increase efficiency by providing real-time information on crop production and distribution. In education, blockchain can create a secure and transparent platform for the issuance and verification of academic certificates, making it easier for students to prove their qualifications and for employers to verify them. To summarize, the future impact of blockchain technology on social and economic development in India is immense.

The author is CEO, ZebPay

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