In order to boost digital transactions, The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is planning to use blockchain technology. The NPCI is a bank consortium-owned umbrella organization for retail payments and settlements. Blockchain Technology is Being Incorporated by India's National Payments Corporation.
An Expression of Interest (EoI) has already been issued by the NPCI. In this, it calls bids from companies to develop a blockchain solution for payments. It was disclosed in a report in Business Today on Sunday. Also, the organization intends to develop a "resilient, real-time and highly scalable" blockchain solution using open-source technology.
The NPCI is promoted by 10 banks. This includes the SBI, ICICI Bank and HSBC, and has 56 banks as shareholders as of 2016. Supported by India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks' Association, it is a non-profit organization.
In a bid to reduce its hefty annual bill for minting physical cash, the central bank has is researching how to introduce a rupee-backed central bank digital currency into its monetary policy. However, the status and future of publicly offered cryptocurrencies in India, however, remains ambiguous.
A government think-tank called NITI Aayog (the National Institution for Transforming India) has been working on a blockchain solution since last year to address the issue of the country's counterfeit drug problem. Even though the future of cryptocurrencies may be ominous, India is enthusiastic about the blockchain technology behind them.
India's Union Cabinet said it would allow research to be conducted on blockchain technology by the nation's Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) collaboratively with banks in the BRICS economic bloc. However, the Union Cabinet is an executive decision-making body led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior government officials.