Indian Authorities Looking to Build a Blockchain Based Payment Portal

By Prashant Jha

The National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) which is responsible for handling retail payment and settlements through a consortium of banks are planning to use Blockchain Technology to boost digital payment system. The first report of NPCI looking to use Blockchain surfaced in an editorial in Business Today on Sunday.

According to the report, the NPCI has said that it is planning to develop a resilient, real-time and highly scalable system which would help it keep up with the widespread adoption of the technology around the globe. The firm has already issued Expression of Interest (EoI), and have called the interested players to bid to develop a blockchain solution for the payment portals.

NPCI is a non-profit organization directly working under the central bank of India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Indian Banks’ Association. It is promoted by 10 banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HSBC, and has 56 banks as shareholders as of 2016.

Indian Crypto Future in Dark, But Blockchain is Winning the Race

While the future of crypto regulations in India is still in limbo, with the drafting committee extending the supreme court hearing from March 29th to July 23rd. However, that has not stopped the central government-owned RBI to look for blockchain based solutions. Apart from RBI, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of the biggest IT solution and consultancy service providers have decided to adopt Ripple banking solutions for its cross-border payment services.

Thus, its quite evident that the authorities, as well as private stakeholders, know that the future lies in blockchain. However, their continuous delay in finalizing the regulatory framework for crypto use has created quite an unrest among the crypto community.

Only last year the RBI has issued a circular dimming crypto use for banking sector completely illegal. This led to many upcoming and established crypto services to shut their operation in the country as it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to avail their services after banks refused to lend their services.

Hopefully, with new initiatives and the impending hearing on July 23rd something good comes out of it, as the supreme court is involved.

Prashant Jha

As a content writer Prashant believes in presenting complex topics in simple laymen terms. He is a tech enthusiast and an avid reader.

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