How Blockchain technology can help the Government?
Blockchain can help Government entities carry out many of its key functions. Though, Blockchain, which is a decentralized public ledger is different to the fundamentals of governance, which is mostly based on centralized public sector units, the incorporation of this technology has the potential to revolutionize the way the government carries out its affairs and make it quick, efficient and transparent. In the current world order, political parties cutting across political lines have realized that Blockchain in Government, is not an option but a necessity.
In the recent years, the Indian Government has announced a spate of projects utilizing this revolutionary technology for its e-governance projects. Even State Governments have shown interest in Blockchain. In June 2017, state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had indicated that they planned to adopt Blockchain solutions for land registry, data protection, and KYC records. States such as Maharashtra, Gujrat and Uttar Pradesh have also envisaged interest in adopting Blockchain solutions. Enumerated below are three essential areas where the incorporation of Blockchain in governance can make fundamental difference in the way the government carries out its social agenda.
Making Welfare distribution more efficient: For governments across the world, one of their important duties is to take care of the poor and the economically underprivileged. In a country like India, where millions are below the poverty line, welfare schemes such as old age pensions, scholarships for the poor, discounted LPG, etc., are the only means for subsistence for the poor and the needy. Most of the payments are covered under the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. However, there are some inherent challenges such as fraudulence, human error, existence of several claimants who have no bank accounts, and difficulty in prioritizing those who are most in need of government largesse.
With the Government adopting Blockchain solutions, the transaction costs can be cut down extensively. As the requirement for third parties for making transactions and keeping records will be reduced, the risks of fraud, leakages, and human error will be substantially less.
Land registration: Unclear land titles are a major cause of concern in India today leading to lengthy litigation battles. The Government can use Blockchain technology to ensure authenticity, transparency and develop trust among all stakeholders. By incorporating land deeds/records in the blockchain one could also make them immutable and tamper proof.
Food value chain: With Blockchain technology, the government can ensure traceability and transparency in agriculture supply chain. Issues related to unfair pricing, delayed payments, and middlemen can be dealt with effectively.
Read More: Blockchain in Food Supply Chain
Protecting critical government infrastructure: In modern times when the threat of an attack is eminent, it is quite possible for people with a nefarious design to seize control of critical routers. As a result, critical data of government organizations and companies is liable for capture. Furthermore, as embedded technologies are also utilized by railways, bridges, flood barriers, energy installations, etc., the risks of such attacks causing damage to property and human life also increases. With a distributed ledger, it is possible to monitor the integrity of the software for any unlawful changes. It also ensures that data transmitted from systems with an IoT functionality is not tampered with.
Crop insurance: Blockchain is an ideal platform for administering crop insurance. In its current form the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is administered in clusters. Using a Blockchain solution, the government can carry out functions such as uploading notifications and guidelines with respect to crops and threshold yields with respect to each cluster. Likewise, the insurance company could also upload the rates for all crops in that cluster using the master contract for the cluster.
All the approved contracts on the Farmers can be notified on the Blockchain by the insurance company, and likewise all the non-approved contracts can be notified as well. Automatic payments could be made by both the State and the Central Governments to the insurance company basis contract approvals. It can be of immense help for the farmers as well and could help them in claim settlement. In case they have lower than threshold yield, the claims would be settled automatically, and the payments would be automatically credited on the farmer’s account, removing unnecessary intermediaries.
The way ahead
In short, the possibilities of Blockchain use for governance are endless. By harnessing the powers of Blockchain technology, not only can the establishment/government streamline the functioning of the mammoth public sector, but also mitigate red tape, corruption and inefficiency. Sofocle is one of the leading providers of Blockchain solutions. In the Government sector, our team has worked closely with some of the forerunners to provide them with solutions that will help them achieve efficient and transparent Governance.
