Budget 2018: Maharashtra government welcomes use of blockchain technology

Finance minister Arun Jaitley's announcement about exploring blockchain technologies is a shot in the arm for the Maharashtra government which is among the first in the country to work on adopting this distributed ledger system for applications like maintaining land and other government records.

"Maharashtra is among the first states to work on blockchains. This is a positive sign to go ahead," SVR Srinivas, principal secretary, state IT department told DNA. He added they would now proceed with the proof of concept for various applications like land records, farm insurance data, asset transactions and even work of the Road Transport Offices (RTO). "It reduces cost and saves time," said Srinivas, adding they were planning a financial technology policy based on blockchain, making it the first in India to do so.

In his Budget speech, Jaitley said, "The distributed ledger system or the blockchain technology allows organisation of any chain of records or transactions without the need of intermediaries." He added, "The government will explore the use of blockchain technology proactively for ushering in a digital economy."

A senior bureaucrat noted that apart from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh too was exploring the use of blockchains. "Blockchain is used when you don't want a central authority. It is a decentralised ledger (unlike) records of transactions like NEFT (which) are maintained in centralised repositories or servers," he said.

What is blockchain?

• Blockchain networks refer to an electronic platform which is cryptographically secured and used to record transactions across many systems or computers.
• The stored information can be shared and continuously updated.
• It is tough to hack since it is not stored in a central repository but in a linked chain.
• Officials claim the system reduces chances of manipulation and maintains data sanctity.