India unveils ‘Vishvasya’ tech stack to boost blockchain take-up

A technology stack called ‘Vishvasya’ is among a suite of initiatives launched by India’s government as it looks to support blockchain use across the country.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger (or database) that maintains a growing list of records (‘blocks’) linked using cryptography. Distributed-ledger technology (DLT) is increasingly being explored and deployed in both the public and private sectors worldwide.

Vishvasya will offer ‘blockchain-as-a-service’ (BaaS) through a geographically distributed infrastructure designed to support various permissioned blockchain-based applications, a government announcement states.

BaaS provides an organisiation with access to a blockchain network without the organisation needing to develop its own blockchain. Permissioned blockchains are distributed ledgers that only allow access to users who have been granted access.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which is the lead government agency on the initiative, has also announced the creation of a blockchain sandbox platform called ‘NBFLite’ (a sandbox is a test space for new tech-based projects); a blockchain-enabled solution for verifying mobile app origin called ‘Praamaanik’; and a ‘National Blockchain Portal’. All are part of a ‘National Blockchain Framework’ designed to ‘enable security, trust and transparency for various citizen-centric applications’, according to the announcement (4 September).

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‘Addressing adoption challenges’

Vishvasya ultimately aims to ‘address the challenges of blockchain adoption across various stakeholders, including infrastructure providers, smart-contract developers and application developers,’ a four-page ‘National Blockchain Framework’ summary document explains.

Smart contracts are blockchain-based digital contracts that are automatically executed when pre-determined terms and conditions are met.

The National Blockchain Framework is also described in the announcement as a ‘tech stack’. It is, the government states, ‘architected with distributed infrastructure, core framework functionality, smart contracts and API [application programming interface] gateway, security, privacy and interoperability, plus applications development, offering blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS).’

The framework currently supports two permissioned blockchain platforms and is extensible (meaning that new features can be added).

The tech stack is hosted on infrastructure at NIC (National Informatics Centre) data centres. Three data-centre locations are mentioned in the announcement: Bhubaneswar in the east of India; Pune in the west; and Hyderabad in south central India. NIC is a government department under MeitY.

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Multi-organisation collaboration

NBFLite has been created to help start-ups and academia carry out ‘rapid’ prototyping of applications, as well as research and capacity-building. 

Praamaanik is able to be used by mobile-app owners, for example government apps as well as financial and banking apps, as well as users (citizens), according to the four-page document. ‘Mobile apps are uploaded by designated representative of the organisation and the unique details of the mobile app are recorded in the blockchain ledger,’ it explains.

The National Blockchain Portal contains information including events, education and training, as well as ‘success stories.’

Numerous organisations are named as having collaborated on the technologies involved in the initiatives. As well as NIC, those organisations are: C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), IDRBT Hyderabad (Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad and SETS (Society for Electronic Transactions and Security) Chennai.

During a launch event, MeitY secretary S Krishnan – who took up his role 12 months ago – encouraged those involved to champion India as a ‘global leader in blockchain technology and proliferate the developed solutions for global adoption, leveraging it to drive economic growth, social development and digital empowerment.’

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Blockchain’s ‘immense potential’

At the same launch event MeitY group coordinator R&D in electronics and IT Sunita Verma said the National Blockchain Framework should help to address challenges including skilled manpower shortages, vendor lock-in and research challenges related to areas including security, interoperability and performance.

MeitY additional secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar, meanwhile, highlighted that blockchain technology ‘holds immense potential for transforming governance in India by making public services more transparent, efficient and accountable,’ according to the announcement.

Kumar also emphasised the need to scale the applications on the National Blockchain Framework across various states and departments, and suggested exploring the possibility of adding further innovative components to the National Blockchain Framework stack.

It is a couple of years since India’s government has made its payments and digital ID technology available to all countries worldwide via open APIs under the country’s ‘India Stack’ initiative. Indiastack.global – described as a ‘global repository of key projects’ – includes the country’s well-established real-time mobile payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and digital ID system Aadhaar. The Indiastack.global website is run out of MeitY’s National e-Governance Division (NeGD) in New Delhi.

Prime minister Narendra Modi described the move as an ‘offering to the global public digital goods repository’ that would ‘help position India as the leader in building digital transformation projects at a population scale and prove to be of immense help to other countries which are looking for such technology solutions.’