India is on the course of development and it has witnessed growth in every sector since the last decade. One of the important factors in accelerating the slow rate of development in India has been the proper involvement and utilization of technologies. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of digital India has shown promising and stable future for growth in the country.

PM’s vision and latest technologies

In his speech, Mr. Modi said, “I dream of a digital India where access to information knows no barrier.” One of the flagship projects of the Digital India campaign is the Smart City Mission. Latest technologies have a lot of involvement and applications in this project. These technologies can accelerate the growth of the project.

Blockchain and smart India

Blockchain can play a pivotal role in really making smart cities accountable, transparent, accurate, adaptable, and efficient.  Several parts of the country are already working on adopting blockchain in the mainstream functioning of organizations. Given the immutability, integrity, non-repudiation, and non-involvement of a trusted third-party make the blockchain a cutting-edge technology to transform India and smart cities project.

It is very unfortunate to see that only 1.8% of the allocated funds have been utilized by far since its allocation on June 25, 2015.

276 projects started under smart cities mission to transform Jammu and Srinagar.
The Smart City project will uplift standard of living in both cities at par with metro citiies in India.#BadaltaJammuKashmir #JubilantJammuKashmir#ShimingJKpic.twitter.com/PzC7Y9IJYm

— Owais Nazki (@NazkiOwais_) April 24, 2022

Blockchain makes the brain and soul of smart cities

The Distributes Ledger Technology can act as the driving force behind the smart cities and can make the functioning of almost all the sectors efficient and accountable. Everything can be done without the need of a trusted 3rd party including voting, healthcare, banking, logistics, security, land registration, power distribution, managing certificates for – birth, death, education, residence etc.

The integration of the blockchain into the smart cities would ensure the security of data against theft and breaches. We already have a well-laid optical fiber network laid in our country which is expanding at a CAGR of 17%and also a widely available 4G network; the idea of incorporating the blockchain wouldn’t be that tough.

The advantage of blockchain incorporated system

In a research paper Securing Smart Cities Using Blockchain Technology, published by Kamanashis Biswas and Vallipuram Muthukkumarasamy of Griffith University, Australia, have shown how a security framework can integrate blockchain with smart devices to provide a secure communication platform in a smart city.

Mr. Biswas summarizes his paper by saying, “The main advantage of using the blockchain security framework is that it is resilient against many threats. Further, it provides a number of unique features such as improved reliability, better fault tolerance capability, faster and efficient operation, and scalability.”

Also, read – The Blockchain: What It Is and Why It Matters

Securing elections and people’s data

Indian electoral system is quite debatable and often parties end up blaming each other for EVM faults and mishandling. The blockchain can surely increase transparency and end the dependence on EVMs and would also bring down the cost of conducting elections once it is incorporated in the smart city project.

Recently the AADHAR i.e. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been identified as the biggest risk for data theft. The blockchain can be used to rectify this problem.

This is not all; the blockchain can be the leading technology behind the improvement in every other sector like healthcare, agriculture, banking, education, land etc. The blockchain can regulate the issue of fake medical licenses and certificates. It can also secure risky data related to patient’s privacy.

Tamil Nadu has an idea

The Tamil Nadu government is already planning to use the blockchain to secure land rights of citizens. So why not use it as a model for other parts of the country as well? The blockchain would make the whole system less complex and would erase the idea of RTI as once the data is put on public blockchain; it can be fetched by anyone, anytime, depending on the permissions granted.

For the brighter future of India, the authorities have to identify the potential of the blockchain and incorporate in our system.