UP govt to use blockchain for data security, directs officials to build infra within 6 months

Taking a stride towards cutting edge technology, the Uttar Pradesh government is planning to use blockchain technology for ensuring data security of land and revenue records.

The govt has directed officials to build blockchain infra within next six months. It has also asked them to draft blockchain notification within a week and expedite the process of implementation.

Along with data security of land and revenue records, it will help in registration and verification, prevention from forgery and tempering, UP Chief Secretary Anup Chandra Pandey was quoted as saying by BS report.

The state govt plans to use the technology in other departments after its successful implementation in the revenue department. In this regard, UP govt has requested Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) to give suggestions for making the government’s startup policy more focused and productive.

More than 150 million of Uttar Pradesh population is dependent on agriculture and pastoral land for livelihood. The technology would weed out manipulation, forgery and cheating.

A distributed ledger is a collection of records where every person who accesses it also has a copy. But participants have to agree to make a change in the database.

States such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka have working on the blockchain project to safeguard their respective and voluminous revenue records.

Meanwhile, the government think-tank along with other stakeholders have been working for the past few months on the application of blockchain technology for various aspects of governance.

The government is also piloting trials to award degrees under Niti Aayog. The plan is to begin issuing digital certificates on the blockchain (IndiaChain) from the 2019 batch onwards. Niti Aayog also plans running blockchain-based pilots on electronic health records and land records, amongst others.

Distributed ledger-based solutions, once implemented across sectors on the scale, will be a huge boost in bringing transparency in governance and reducing frauds. Currently, the government is also working on the blockchain-enabled project in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.