The Social Impact Driven by The Blockchain Technology in India

Hey Everyone! It's a cloudy day up here in my area. So, what better day is to be than to read some cryptocurrency related articles and enjoy the weather with a cup of tea in my hand. Well, Recently I have been trying to understand the possible growth of the Indian crypto market, to be more precise; about the Virtual Digital Assets. According to the Income tax act, any information, code, number or token generated through cryptographic means are termed as virtual digital assets (VDAs). See, cryptocurrency is not a new boom in India. It is there for a long time. But, the question is, is the blockchain technology driving economic growth in India and if driving to how much social impact it has on us and will it be transforming India to a new hub of blockchain users? Come, let us discuss.

The Indian Cryptocurrency market was evaluated at around $150.214M in the year 2020. The market has been growing steadily ever since it was launched in India. In the initial stages of introducing this technology in the country, the growth was a lot slower as the users weren’t much aware of it. However, not long it took to spread the news among the Indian users. As awareness about cryptocurrency spread across the nation, the market started to witness a gradual increase over the years. When the ban on cryptocurrency trading was lifted by the Supreme Court of India in March 2020, it became icing on the cake for the new and older users. In light of these government relaxations, the market saw major players giving out services regarding cryptocurrency. For example, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) launched a product called Quartz Smart Solution for crypto for the banking institutions that are dealing in cryptocurrencies.

Studies says that blockchain adoption in India could hit a staggering 46% by the end of 2026. This is an indication of the enormous possibilities to boost the economy. By leveraging the blockchain technology, India could drive significant social impact across various sectors from healthcare to governance.

Under the National Blockchain Framework, India is continuously improving and making significant steps towards adopting blockchain as a service and developing human resources. The government has also started 'Made in India' blockchain technology for global use within the next coming 5 years. The ultimate goal is to harness the full potential of Blockchain, IoT, Cloud and AI commonly called as BICA. This will drive full possibilities of their use cases to drive towards economic growth.

With the presidency of the G20, India has the opportunity to set the tone and pave the way in creating a forward-thinking framework for the VDA industry.

How is Blockchain paving the way for social changes in India ?

• The Finance Sector

The blockchain technology is providing access to banking services for millions of citizens without a bank account. With just a smartphone and an internet connection, individuals without a bank account can now access various financial services. With the peer-to-peer transactions, people can send or receive funds without the need of intermediaries. With fast and secure transactions, they need not worry about the traditional banking infrastructure. If you ever went to the bank for a loan service, then you know the hectic and too much time consuming banking sector to approve your loan. With the advent of blockchain technology, this has become a matter of hours. This has been providing security and efficacy within the lending and borrowing process, particularly in the rural sectors, where accessing financial services has been challenging.

• Healthcare Sector

The challenges like transparency, data privacy and keeping of medical records can are being solved by the revolutionizing blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is providing solutions to the fragmented and a lackage of a unified database which creates difficulties in accessing patients' information. Blockchain is helping to create a decentralized and secure database system for easy access and storing the information of patients' medical records. This aids in reducing medical errors and improving overall patient care.

The problems associated with counterfeit drugs can be tackled by the blockchain technology. This can track the entire supply chain of medicines from the manufacturer to the end consumer. Furthermore, the blockchain technology can facilitate secure and fast payment and insurance claims processing that conventionally takes days to proceed. Thereby making healthcare more accessible and affordable to patients.

• Supply Chain Management

The supply chains which serves as the backbone of any business can be opaque in developing countries like India. This can create challenges in tracking products and ensuring ethical sourcing. The blockchain has solutions to this. According to the World Economic Forum, streamlining information through blockchain technology can potentially increase global trade by more than $1 trillion in the next 5 years.

Companies such as Walmart and IBM have already implemented blockchain technology. As the adoption of blockchain in India continues to grow, supply chain management could hit greater transparency and efficacy.

Future Scope

Other than the above mentioned sectors, blockchain technology could improve and manage other industries such as real estate, agriculture and education. The Indian government could allow the usage of blockchain technology to simplify buying and selling properties by providing a transparent record of ownerships. This can reduce fraud and could potentially enhance the confidence of investors.

In educations, blockchain technology could create a secure and transparent platform for issuing and verifying academic certificates. Thereby making it simple for students to proof their qualifications. Similarly usage of blockchain technology in agriculture can improve supply chain management and increase efficiency by providing real time crop production and information related to product distributions.

In all in all, the future impact of blockchain technology on social and economic growth and development of India is immense.

Until we meet again :)

PS The thumbnail image is being created by me using canva.com

---

---

Thanks for stopping by :)