India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is deepening its commitment to blockchain, the foundational technology behind Web3. This week, MeitY unveiled a suite of blockchain platforms aimed at empowering Indian developers to build secure, transparent, and reliable digital solutions. MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan, who led the launch, emphasized the potential of these platforms to drive the creation of citizen-centric applications, enhancing trust and security in the digital landscape.
The government is looking to explore blockchain usecases around e-Stamps solution, judiciary application, forensic application, consent management framework, IoT device security management, and domicile certificate chain alongside tracking of agriculture produce and inspection system for child care institutions.
For these varied use cases, the MeitY has launched – Vishvasya, NBFLite, and Praamaanik blockchain systems, the announcement said.
The Vishvasya-Blockchain Technology Stack, as per the official announcement, is a geographically distributed infrastructure designed to support various permissioned Blockchain based applications.
Meanwhile, the NBFLite has been explained as a lightweight blockchain platform that developers could use to create solutions for startups and academia. Praamaanik, on the other hand, is the blockchain solution for verifying mobile app origins.
In addition, the MeitY has also initiated the National Blockchain Framework (NBF) technology stack — which will prioritise the research and development work around blockchain applications. This stack is hosted on geographically distributed infrastructure at NIC Data centers in Bhubaneswar, Pune, and Hyderabad.
“Blockchain technology holds immense potential for transforming governance in India by making public services more transparent, efficient, and accountable,” the announcement quoted Bhuvnesh Kumar, Additional Secretary, MeitY as commenting on the development.
With this NBF, the Indian authorities are now laying focus on scaling blockchain applications for varied use cases. The launch of these blockchain platforms is intended to grow Web3-skilled manpower in India, equipped to resolve challenges related to security, interoperability, and performance of the network.
This, however, is not the first time that the Indian government has taken a pro-blockchain step. Back in August 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched Falcon — an open-source project that aims to simplify the management and use of blockchains based on ‘Hyperledger Fabric’ and supported on Kubernetes clusters.