The State government has completed its first blockchain pilot study with four Proof of Concepts (PoCs) demonstrating the feasibility of the technology in the fields of organ transplant, rationing, digital certification and land records.
Earlier this year, the government had shortlisted private startups to establish PoCs in sectors such as public distribution system, rationing, school education, farm compensations, digital certification and land records. Four PoCs are now ready and detailed project reports (DPRs) on them will be prepared before there are included in the day-to-day functioning of the government.
S.V.R. Srinivas, Principal Secretary, Information Technology Department, said, “The DPRs will be prepared in less than a month on the basis of the PoCs in the selected sectors. The blockchain technology will soon be a reality in Maharashtra.”
A blockchain is a distributed digital transaction ledger, which allows maintenance of identical copies of data or records on multiple computer systems. Anyone participating in a blockchain can review entries, but needs consensus to update the blockchain. The government has tied up with M/s Deloitte as its knowledge partner and signed up leading technology startups for the PoCs.
The PoC was successfully implemented in the organ donation and transplant supply chain at GT Hospital. The pilot study has established that a blockchain solution can enable real-time viewing of transactions and replacing paperwork generated in the transplant supply chain. Mr. Srinivas said, “If and when implemented, it will make authentication in the organ donation supply chain easy.”
Maharashtra has now become only the second State after Andhra Pradesh to move concretely towards making its services fully based on blockchain technology. Andhra Pradesh has already put in place a blockchain and data cloud policy based on the five Ms (manpower, market access, mindset change, money and memorandum of understanding) to meet its objective by 2019.
Senior officials said that Maharashtra has drawn inspiration from the Estonian model of blockchain in the public sector. In Estonia, the government has rolled out the Keyless Signature Infrastructure technology to safeguard electronic health records.
Kaustubh Dhavse, Joint Secretary and Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister, said, “Andhra Pradesh’s impressive implementation of blockchain technology remains an inspiration for Maharashtra.”
