Govt-owned firms, BFSI sector driving blockchain adoption in India: Nasscom

Public sector firms across half of the states along with the banking and financial sector are driving blockchain adoption in the country, a report by IT industry body Nasscom said Tuesday.

"The public sector has driven blockchain-based projects with nearly half the Indian states involved to address different elements of citizen service delivery," Nasscom said in a statement.

It said the state governments are also ensuring a progressive approach to impart a conducive framework for start-ups and niche service providers to participate in these initiatives.

According to the report, more than 40 blockchain initiatives are currently being executed by public sector companies with 92 per cent projects in pilot phase and 8 per cent in production phase.

"Further, enterprises across all key industries in India are also identifying different applications of blockchain. The BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector has seen the highest adoption, but other industries such as healthcare, retail and logistics are also accelerating rapidly," the industry body said.

The report said that start-ups are involved in over 50 per cent of the blockchain projects across various industries in the country.

"Even as the demand for blockchain-based talent is growing at 40 per cent each quarter, it is time to reiterate the importance of a skilled workforce. It is imperative to prepare our workforce through training programmes and skill initiatives in this field, so that service providers in the country don't fall behind the global standards," Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president, Nasscom, said.