Disruptive’ Blockchain Tech Requires Rapid Adaptation: India’s Prime Minister

The most powerful public official from the world’s largest democracy has bullishly labeled ‘disruptive’ blockchain technology to bring seismic changes to India’s society.

Speaking at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2018 today, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi stated:

“Disruptive technologies such as Blockchain and the IoT (Internet of Things), will have a profound impact in the way we live and work. They will require rapid adaptation in our workplaces.”

The country’s foremost politician was speaking at the event attended by representatives of over 80 countries’ IT industry associations, altogether representing over 90% of the world’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry as the WITSA consortium.

During the conference, NASSCOM, India’s primary IT trade association, launched a platform to develop skills in eight varied technologies including blockchain. NASSCOM previously established a special interest group to explore use cases for blockchain technology in both financial and non-financial industries while educating and informing the public about the innovative decentralized technology.

In adding to prime minister Modi’s approach to embrace blockchain technology, India’s minister of law and justice and electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad stated today:

“Digital empowerment can only happen if there is digital inclusion. With the advent of new technologies like AI, Blockchain and IoT, reskilling of young professionals is critical.”

The remarks come within weeks of India’s foremost policy-making institute and think tank revealing its endeavor to explore blockchain applications in a number of industries including education, agriculture and healthcare. Last month, the National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) unveiled plans to launch a number of proofs-of-concept (PoC) trials.

The research arm of India’s central bank has notably stated that blockchain technology had “matured enough” to be the core driver to support the digitization of India’s fiat currency, the rupee. That significant endorsement was over a year ago. Since then, the research arm has developed a new blockchain platform for multiple applications in India’s financial industry.

In other blockchain-specific endeavors in the country, India’s largest bank (also state-owned) began outlining its roadmap to introduce blockchain technology for a number of financial processes in late 2017. India’s securities regulator and watchdog SEBI installed its own committee to explore blockchain solutions last year whereas the FinTech-forward south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is already developing blockchain applications in a number of areas including land registry and citizen data storage.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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AUTHOR
Samburaj Das
Samburaj is the Editor for CCN, among the earliest and foremost publications covering blockchain, cryptocurrency and financial technology news. He has authored over 1,500 articles for CCN and is invested in Bitcoin. Email: [email protected]

BITCOIN ANALYSIS FEBRUARY 19, 2018 12:24
Cryptocurrency Market Stabilizes at $500 Billion, Bitcoin Records 5% Gain
Bitcoin cryptocurrency
After falling to $10,350 on February 18, the price of bitcoin has rebounded to $11,050, recording a 5 percent daily gain, positively affecting the entire market with its momentum.

Bitcoin Preparing Bull Run
The daily trading volume of bitcoin and the global cryptocurrency market has been relatively strong over the past 24 hours, as nearly $20 billion were traded since February 18. The daily trading volume of bitcoin across all major cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, UpBit, Bithumb, and Bitfinex remain strong, demonstrating early signs of yet another rally towards $13,000, as many analysts have noted.

In South Korea, the daily trading volume of bitcoin hit a monthly high, as more than 80,000 bitcoins were traded in the past 24 hours. HanKyoReh, one of South Korea’s largest mainstream media outlets, reported that the demand for bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market is increasing, for the first time since mid-January.

Many investors have likely started to invest in the bitcoin market out of FOMO, or fear of missing out, given that it has sustained its upward momentum throughout the past few days. Markets like South Korea and Japan tend to move by word of mouth and as such, FOMO triggers stronger volumes in most Asian markets.

Chosun, another mainstream media outlet in South Korea, noted that bitcoin has built resilience over the past month, and the Kimchi Premium has started to appear again, as more investors have begun to enter the cryptocurrency market again.

“Resilient and strong bitcoin remains above $10,000 even through negative issues, criticisms, and large corrections. Kimchi premium is growing again, as demand rises,” said Chosun.

Currently, the market is seeing similar levels and prices as December 2017, merely two months back, prior to bitcoin’s massive bull run that allowed the cryptocurrency to establish its all-time high at $19,000.

Major cryptocurrency-focused venture capital firm Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead said last week that the price of bitcoin will likely surge by next week, after it rebounds from its bear market. Morehead noted that most bear markets tend to last 71 days and hence, bitcoin will be in an ideal position to surge in value in the upcoming week.

“So—the past doesn’t predict the future—but it seems like this is about the right [correction]. The other stat to note is that it typically has had on average a 71 day bear market and we’re 52 days into this. So it seems like another couple of weeks and everything will be kind of normal and it could start grinding backup,” said Morehead earlier this month.

Ethereum
Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies along with ICO tokens have been following the trend of bitcoin over the past two weeks. Only a few cryptocurrencies have been able to surpass the gains of bitcoin, and most cryptocurrencies have recorded losses against bitcoin. Against bitcoin, Ethereum declined by 2 percent over the past 24 hours.

But, it is also important to note that Ethereum is only down less than 32 percent from its all-time high.

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BITCOIN INVESTMENT, BITCOIN TRADING, BUY BITCOIN, CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE
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Joseph Young
Hong Kong-Based Finance and Cryptocurrency Analyst / Writer. Contributing regularly to CCN and Hacked. Offering cryptocurrency news and Insights Into Asian Market (South Korea, Japan, and more).
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