India’s National Informatics Centre (NIC), a government agency under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, currently hosts close to eight million government-issued documents on its five blockchains. These documents include education, property, judiciary, and drug logistics records. The NIC recently launched a website to showcase its blockchain initiatives, highlighting the 7.93 million documents currently stored on the blockchain. The blockchain platforms used in India include Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Ethereum. The five blockchain products being used are certificate chain, document chain, drug logistics chain, judiciary chain, and property chain. These projects have been implemented by various government departments, including the Central Board of Secondary Education, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, and the Ministry of Justice. The use of blockchain technology has enabled verification services for property ownership, birth and death certificates, supply chain management for medicines, and educational certificates. India is also exploring proof-of-concept blockchains for land records, blood banks, backtracking goods and services tax, and a Public Distribution System. The implementation of blockchain technology in India aims to combat document forgery by issuing digitally verifiable and immutable certificates. Although India has been hesitant to fully embrace cryptocurrencies, it has embraced blockchain technology, with the participation of various state and local governments in the nation’s blockchain adoption drive.
India Utilizes Five Blockchains to Store Eight Million Government Documents