Lok Sabha Question No. 1385 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-27
Subject: Use of Blockchain Technology
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION NO. 1385

TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.11.2019

## USE OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

## 1385.    SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA:

## Will the Minister of Electronics and Information technology be pleased to state:

- (a) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  promote  and  encourage  the  use  of blockchain technology;
- (b) whether the Government has conducted any research on the uses of blockchain technology and if so, the details and the outcome thereof; and
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

- (a):        Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  (MeitY)  has  identified Blockchain Technology as one of the important research areas having application potential in  different  domains such as Governance, Banking & Finance, Cyber Security and so on. MeitY has supported a multi institutional project titled Distributed Centre of Excellence in Blockchain Technology with C-DAC, IDRBT and VJTI as executing agencies. Objectives of this initiative are,
1. Evolving an ecosystem around R&D organizations, Government departments and Academia to foster Blockchain technology,
2.        Design,  development  and  pilot  deployment  /  prototyping  of  Blockchain  based applications  in  the  domains  of  Governance,  Banking  &  Finance  and  Cyber Security,
3.        Conduct research to address the issues and challenges related to Blockchain usage in identified application domains,
4.      Evolving Blockchain framework using open-source implementations to suite the identified application domain requirements  and
5.       Capacity building in Blockchain technology.

(b) and (c):  As part of Distributed Centre of Excellence in Blockchain Technology initiative, agencies carried out research on the use of Blockchain Technology in various domains and developed  Proof-of-Concept  solutions.  Blockchain  Technology  based  solution  for  property registration has been developed and is being piloted at Shamshabad District, Telangana State. Proof-of-Concept solutions are being developed for enabling Cloud Security Assurance, CKYC and trade finance. Generic Blockchain based Proof-of Existence (PoE) Framework is developed  to  enable  PoE  for  digital  artifacts,  used  to  check  the  integrity  of  academic certificates, sale deed documents, MoU etc. By using PoE framework, solution is developed to authenticate academic certificates. Blockchain Technology has also been used and PoC is developed for vehicle life cycle management and hotel registry management PoC. In addition to the above, action is taken for integrating Blockchain with e-Sign. Considering the potential of Blockchain Technology and the need for shared infrastructure for different use cases, an approach paper on National Level Blockchain Framework is being

prepared, for scaling up and wider deployment of Blockchain based use cases.

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