The Financial Express
By Vikram R.Singh
As blockchain technology gains popularity as a means for businesses to achieve rapid growth and gain a
competitive advantage, an increasing number of enterprises in India are integrating blockchain
technology into their operations to enhance efficiencies and address a wide range of business
challenges. A Market Watch study has found that 56% of the businesses in the country are inclined
towards adopting blockchain as a core part of their operations. India is poised to emerge as one of the
fastest growing markets for blockchain, as reflected by a recent FICCI-Ernst & Young report, which has
predicted that Web3 and blockchain can add $1.1 trillion to the country’s GDP by 2032.
Advantages galore
What explains the exponential rise of blockchain in India in recent years is a multitude of benefits it
offers to both large and small enterprises in terms of increased transparency, faster and more secure
operations driven by automation and higher productivity. Using the immense potential of blockchain to
dramatically enhance the efficiencies of their operations, businesses can indeed grow more rapidly.
In fact, blockchain technology can benefit enterprises in multiple ways. While blockchain payment
solutions and the connected nature of this new-age technology can open up new markets for them not
only in India but the world over, the simplified payments using blockchain can also reduce their costs
considerably.
By rooting out intermediaries and automating various processes, blockchain can help enterprises save a
lot of time, effort and money. I feel it can also speed up e-commerce and finance, enable businesses to
expand their customer base and reach their clientele more efficiently, and expand their network of
suppliers and business partners.
More responsive, actionable
Many Indian companies are already using blockchain technology gainfully to improve upon financial
services and enhance customer relations through more responsive and actionable processes. Bajaj
Finserv, for instance, makes use of blockchain technology for services like travel insurance to settle
claims even before they are raised by customers. In the event of flight delays, the system immediately
receives and processes the information to automatically generate and pay the claim amount.
The high levels of transparency and accountability in blockchain processes can also improve business
efficiencies by considerably reducing the time and costs involved in giving permissions and clearances
through inherent smart contracts and a decentralised database that does away with the need for
intermediaries. While large enterprises are increasingly adopting blockchain in their daily processes,even startups are coming forward with brilliant use-cases of this technology in banking, insurance,financial services and many other sectors.
Secure and transparent
Supported by end-to-end encryption, blockchain secures the transactions by making them immutable,
thus reducing the chances of tampering and fraud. The immutability factor ensures that transactions
recorded on the blockchain network cannot be changed, deleted or modified. All the transactions are
time-stamped and date-stamped, hence providing a permanent record for highly reliable tracking and
auditing of information.
Since the data on blockchain networks is stored across a network of systems, cybercriminals can have no
access to it. This is particularly relevant for large enterprises, which are often confronted by issues like
counterfeiting, fraud and data breach. Blockchain technology can resolve all these issues through its
decentralised ledger system, which allows all stakeholders to access and verify data without the need
for a centralised authority, while ensuring transparency, security and immutability.
Cost-effective, scalable
Blockchain can also go a long way in improving supply chain management and service delivery systems
by efficiently tracking the movement of goods and services across the supply chain. Maintaining utmost
authenticity and transparency, blockchain technology enables the use of self-executing smart contracts,
which can automate processes and minimise the possibility of human error.
Delivering the maximum outcome with minimum investment, blockchain has replaced the tedious
routine tasks hitherto performed manually, like data collection and auditing. It has also eliminated the
costs involved in hiring third-party solution-providers, thus offering a cost-effective and scalable solution
that maximises returns without relying on high-end tech infrastructure. All it requires is an advanced
algorithm that can flexibly be used with any software stack like Java, Dot Net and Python.
Use-cases across industries
I am of the firm opinion that Indian enterprises preparing for the blockchain revolution have a lot to
learn from successful examples of blockchain adoption by enterprises like Walmart, which uses
blockchain technology to precisely track the movement of food products in its supply chain. IBM’s
blockchain-based supply chain management platform TradeLens is also a case in point, demonstrating
how blockchain technology can improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance safety.
We have numerous potential use-cases of blockchain technology in identity management, finance,
hospitality, education, healthcare and more. For instance, blockchain can be used for identity
management by enabling people to control their own data and reduce the risk of identity theft. It can
also be used for payments, remittances and other financial services as blockchain-based payments are
faster, cheaper and more secure than traditional payment methods.
Likewise, blockchain in healthcare secures patient data, reduces the risk of medical errors and improves
healthcare outcomes. Even the Central government is actively leveraging this technology to develop
use-cases in farm insurance, education, land title registry and healthcare.
With blockchain bound to emerge as a major contributor to the Indian economy in years to come,
bringing with it a plethora of employment opportunities for industry-ready techies, we are in for even
more successful use-cases of this new-age technology cutting across industries.
The author is founder, CEO, Antier, a blockchain consultancy firm
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