India is a nation now known for its anti-cryptocurrency stance, yet they are still fostering a very positive attitude towards blockchain technology. I must note that in India, the people are very much pro crypto, but the Indian central bank, The Reserve Bank of India are very much against crypto, making moves to essentially ban cryptocurrency in the country. Thankfully the motions passed by the RBI are not yet set in stone, with a final decision set to be made by the High Court in the next month or so.Either way, as it stands, Indian authorities are very anti crypto, but pro blockchain it seems.Aside from the government's investment into blockchain education and other blockchain based projects, news out today also suggest that local councils in West Bengal are not piloting a new scheme that will see birth certificates issued on the blockchain, in partnership with Lynked.world, a company that have created a similar project in The Netherlands. According to CCN:
“Bankura Municipal Corporation and Durgapur Municipal Corporation will be using blockchain tech to handle administrative operations such as processing requests and verifying legal identities to make processes like applications for legal documents such as birth certificates more streamlined. Lynked World CEO and Founder Arun Kumar cited the need for an overhaul of the ‘cumbersome’ systems currently being used for these processes, saying government agencies are still a position where they need citizens standing in front of an agent with their ID in hand to access basic services.”Furthermore, according to CCN, Kumar has said:
“These Birth and other certificates would be digitally authenticated by issuing authorities (municipalities) and that authentication will be stored on blockchain which facilitates verification of these documents by any third party organization to whom owners provide access. Basically Blockchain would be used to write the hash value of certificate together with owner of certificate and who issued it for the authentication and verification.”This news marks the start of an exciting new project that if all goes well, could be used across India for the issue, maintenance and storage of birth records, removing the need for a paper system and providing a more transparent location through which birth records can be kept, making it easier for relevant authorities to access them and, removing the need for people to be responsible of their own physical birth certificates. Whilst crypto seems to have sunk in India, blockchain technology continues to rise. We do expect with this, crypto will make a grand return and hopefully High Court rulings will be able to help with that, for now though we will have to wait and see how the community responds to the growing and immersive nature of blockchain in India. ReferencesCCN Investment Disclaimer