Despite regulatory hurdles, 2019 could be the year of 'blockchain' in India

Experts claim blockchain, along with other technologies such as cloud, AI and IoT, is powerful enough to disrupt several sector

Kamesh Mupparaju’s crypto currency exchange was all but uprooted when the Indian central bank announced a blanket ban on crypto trading in early 2018. His firm, Hyderabad-based BTCXIndia, was at the time, allowing trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum and had just signed up a new token called Ripple.

While Mupparaju, along with the entire bitcoin exchange community, made representations to the authorities, it was understood that crypto trading would not be allowed, at least in the foreseeable future.

Seeing the headwinds, Mupparaju cooked up a pivot. He wound up the exchange and started a blockchain consultancy S Chand Labs —