The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is partnering an industry startup to develop a blockchain for land registration to transparently track the ownership of property.
The government of Andhra Pradesh, a state in southern India, is working with Swedish FinTech startup ChromaWay toward a blockchain-powered solution to fix centralized, inefficient and often erroneous government databases storing property records.
“The current [recording] system is rife with corruption,” revealed special chief secretary IT advisor to the chief minister of the state J.A. Chowdary in comments reported by CNBC.
The government official added:
Fraud is rampant and disputes over titles often end up in court. Matters related to land and property make up about two-thirds of all civil cases in the country.
The land registry pilot, presented by ChromaWay CEO Henrik Hjelte in Vizag today, is a part of the state’s FinTech Valley Vizag initiative. The government has pinned the coastal city of Vishakapatnam, or Vizag, as its FinTech hub with the likes of Visa and Thomson Reuters setting up shop in the city this year.
The government of Andhra Pradesh has also been exploring blockchain tech to fight cyber crime and process pension payments. In a notable and separate endeavor, the state is also partnering Swiss cybersecurity firm WISeKey to record the data of some 84 million citizens on a blockchain.
Chowdary further added:
Blockchain is the technology of the future. It will not only change the way we perceive processes but it also has the potential to transform the economy. Of course, we all are yet to fully discover this technology and hence the Government of Andhra Pradesh has engaged with startups from across the globe such as Chromaway to run proofs of concept within its own departments.
ChromaWay has previously piloted a real-estate blockchain project in Sweden and the blockchain trail in India will make use of the startup’s ‘Postchain’ platform. Deemed as a ‘consortium database’ by ChromaWay, the open-source platform combines blockchain technology with mature database systems.
Meanwhile, the government of Andhra Pradesh is also a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, a working group primarily compromised of companies and Ethereum development startups aiming to leverage Ethereum’s blockchain for enterprise solutions.