Abhijit Singh, Head of Technology at ICICI, talked to YourStory in an exclusive interview conducted on last Friday that focused on the utility of blockchain in the banking sector. During the interview, he represented the standpoint of ICICI on the blockchain, which was pretty much in favor of the emerging ledger-based technology.
Singh also indicated that the Domestic-Systematically Important Bank believes in blockchain technology, stating that the same is strategically important in the long run, and needs to be funded fairly to forge customer-centric solutions, as well as introduce more eco-friendly ways in banking.
Here is what Abhijit had to say about how India is doing in terms of building a blockchain ecosystem:
“Even the Internet at one point of time was difficult to connect. At that moment, not everyone understood how disruptive it would be. Similarly, Blockchain is in that stage where people are starting to understand and work on the technology. At the same time, we are also seeing platforms maturing.”
Talking about what could branch as a challenge from the implementation of blockchain in the banking sector; Singh said that the scale of use cases could be considered an operational challenge, which can only be solved via constructive collaboration. Last April, ICICI on-boarded more than 250 corporates on its blockchain platform aimed at mobilizing domestic and international transactions.
Notably, over the last few months, Indian Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been painstakingly diligent about cryptocurrencies, but on the other hand, have expressed interest in the applications of the blockchain. Although the ministry has been reasonable enough in explaining why cryptocurrencies are not achieving a legal tender anytime soon, various states have contemplated over leveraging blockchain technology to tackle numerous challenges, an example of which would be Andhra Pradesh piloting blockchain-based projects for maintaining land records and improving vehicle registration systems.
When it comes to adoption of blockchain in India, what seems like a confusing puzzle is quite symptomatic in the sense that blockchain is not perceived as a menace in the country; it is only the highly volatile cryptocurrencies that the regulators are trying to tame.
Social Links: