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WHEN India launched its National Blockchain Framework (NBF) in September 2024 with an outlay of `64.76 crore, it signaled more than a new technological experiment. It marked a philosophical shift — an attempt to redesign the machinery of governance around verifiable trust. For years, India’s digital revolution has been anchored by innovations like Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker, all of which digitized identity, payments, and documents for over a billion citizens. But digitization alone is not the same as trust. As governance moves increasingly online, the bigger question is not how to store or process data — but how to ensure that the data is authentic, tamper-proof, and accountable. That is the problem blockchain technology seeks to solve. Once associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain has now emerged as a credible tool for digital governance. It works as a distributed ledger — a secure, time-stamped, and transparent record shared across multiple nodes. Once a transaction is entered, it cannot be altered without detection. For a government that manages billions of records, from land titles to birth certificates, this offers a powerful new form of assurance.
At the heart of the National Blockchain Framework is the Vishvasya Blockchain Stack, the name itself derived from the Sanskrit word vishvasya, meaning trust. Deployed across the National Informatics Centre (NIC) data centres in Bhubaneswar, Pune, and Hyderabad, Vishvasya provides a Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) model that allows government departments to deploy blockchain-based applications without building or maintaining their own infrastructure.
Built as a permissioned blockchain, it ensures that only verified government entities can participate or validate transactions — a design that balances transparency with confidentiality. Its open APIs make it possible for existing e-Governance platforms to integrate seamlessly. This technical foundation has allowed India to move from isolated blockchain pilots to a unified, scalable ecosystem. Complementing Vishvasya are two initiatives that embody innovation and inclusion: NBFLite and Praamaanik. NBFLite is a blockchain sandbox that enables startups, academic institutions, and researchers to build and test blockchain applications in a controlled environment. It comes with smart contract templates for use cases like supply chain tracking and digital certificates, encouraging experimentation without the burden of full-scale deployment.
Praamaanik tackles a different but increasingly urgent challenge: mobile app authenticity. Using blockchain records, it verifies whether an app truly originates from a legitimate developer, helping users avoid fraudulent or malicious software. In an era where digital security and privacy are under constant threat, this initiative strengthens confidence in India’s digital ecosystem.
Unlike many emerging technologies, blockchain is not confined to laboratories or pilot projects. Its real-world applications are already reshaping governance. As of October 2025, more than 34 crore documents have been verified on blockchain platforms across India — a staggering scale that demonstrates both feasibility and public value.
Take the Certificate Chain and Document Chain developed by the NIC. These systems ensure that documents such as birth and death certificates, caste and income proofs, and educational credentials are stored securely and verified instantly. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) now issues academic certificates on blockchain, eliminating fraudulent mark sheets and easing verification for employers and universities.
The technology is also improving transparency in supply chains. In Karnataka, the Aushada platform tracks the movement of medicines from manufacturers to hospitals through a blockchain-based Logistics Chain. Every transaction — from production to delivery — is logged immutably. Patients can verify the authenticity and expiry of medicines before consumption, a critical safeguard against counterfeit drugs. Blockchain’s potential in justice delivery is equally striking. Through the Judiciary Chain and the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), judicial documents, summons, and evidence are securely stored and time-stamped. This reduces delays and ensures the integrity of legal records. As of October 2025, 665 judiciary documents and over 39,000 ICJS documents have been verified on blockchain — modest numbers for now, but milestones for a system historically mired in paperwork and procedural opacity.
Land and property records, long a source of disputes and corruption, are another area of reform. The Property Chain ensures that every property transaction is recorded transparently, reducing duplication and fraud. Over 34 crore property documents have been verified through the blockchain platform, giving buyers and lenders greater confidence and potentially reducing litigation. Technology alone cannot transform governance; people and policy must keep pace. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NIC have trained over 21,000 officials across 214 specialized programmes in blockchain technology. Courses like the Post Graduate Diploma in FinTech & Blockchain Development and C-DAC’s BLEND programme are building a skilled workforce capable of designing and managing these systems.
Meanwhile, regulators are playing an active role. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has mandated blockchain-based Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to regulate commercial SMS and curb spam, registering over 1.13 lakh entities. The Reserve Bank of India’s pilot of the Digital Rupee (e`), launched in December 2022, shows how blockchain can support instant, transparent, and traceable financial transactions. And in the capital markets, NSDL’s blockchain platform for Debenture Covenant Monitoring offers investors an immutable audit trail — a significant step toward cleaner corporate governance. What makes India’s approach distinctive is its public purpose. While many countries explore blockchain through private enterprise, India is treating it as a Digital Public Good — part of the same ecosystem that produced Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker. The National Blockchain Framework is being built as a layer of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — open, interoperable, and sovereign. In this sense, blockchain becomes not a niche technology, but a national trust architecture.
The next phase will demand coordination rather than invention. As states and departments deploy their own blockchain networks, interoperability standards will be essential to ensure secure data exchange. Legal frameworks will have to evolve to define ownership, accountability, and admissibility of blockchain-based records. Above all, citizen engagement must remain central. The ultimate measure of success is not how many documents are verified, but how easily citizens can access, understand, and trust these systems. In a world where data manipulation, misinformation, and bureaucratic opacity often erode public faith, India’s blockchain initiative offers a bold counterpoint. It represents a shift from a trust deficit to a trust infrastructure — from relying on institutional assurances to embedding verifiability into the system itself.
The National Blockchain Framework is not about decentralizing currency; it is about decentralizing trust. By ensuring that every digital interaction — from certificates to property records — carries a cryptographic seal of authenticity, India is quietly rewriting the logic of governance. If the 2010s were about bringing citizens online, the 2020s may be about making that digital world trustworthy. Through the National Blockchain Framework, India is showing that in the age of algorithms, trust is not given — it is built, block by block.
