State of Maharashtra is exploring and experimenting with the revolutionary blockchain technology to enhance good governance. Blockchain can be considered as a secure storage space or a decentralized digital ledger in which data, transactions and much more are recorded chronologically. Any changes made to this digital ledger will be visible to every single user. Even the previous history of changes can be viewed by any user. This makes it very difficult to tamper with.

The government of Maharashtra is about to finalize 5 – 6 pilot projects in which startups will be testing the blockchain technology in the coming months. The project will be tested in the sectors of land records, financial inclusion, supply-chain financing, motor vehicle registration and goods/farm insurance.

Blockchain can be implemented in almost all sectors. Data, certificates, personal files, ownership documents, government rules and regulations, personal identities and much more can be stored in the blockchain. Once stored, these documents can be modified only with the consent of all users. Also, every user can see all the modifications made to a file/document. Because of all these, we can reduce forgery, tampering and even thefts of valuable information and files.

Also if blockchain is implemented, the process of fraud & duplicate paperwork will be reduced, and some labor and their fees can be avoided. Maharashtra is about to conduct a wide study to find out the quantum of investment. According to their calculations, the savings will be much greater than the investments.

In the budget of the year 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government is exploring all the aspects of the blockchain technology to guide and assist the digital economy of the country. They have plans to run pilots in areas like electronic health records, digital certification, revenue, land records and much more.

The implementation of blockchain will d8isrupt the government’s interdepartmental workflows as all the departments will be able to view all the files, the changes made and all the details regarding the files.

Blockchain aims at reducing fraud, increasing efficiency, and giving a secure storage hub. Maharashtra is not the first state thinking about the blockchain technology in India. Andhra Pradesh was the first state to run pilots on blockchain by putting up all the land records on a public ledger. Apart from these two states, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Telangana are also evaluating this technology. There are also plans to bring out a blockchain based solution called Indiachain to issue digital certificates to degree level students.