Indian state uses blockchain to improve registration of new properties

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Maharashtra, India’s second-most populous state, is leveraging distributed ledgers to revamp documentation of land property in the region. The government’s decision to use blockchain technology in real estate was borne out of the desire to improve trust amongst industry participants and reduce incidents of fraud.

Shravan Hardikar, Maharashtra’s inspector General of the Department of Registration and Stamps, noted in a press conference that things are already in motion for the registry to adopt distributed ledger technology (DLT) with leading financial institutions already on board.

“Blockchain pilot has already been started with banks and other mortgage companies, including the Indian Bankers Association,” Hardikar said. “They are being made aware of e-registration documents as questions were being raised that online documents do not have stamps and signatures, so how can they identify these as original documents?”

To solve this challenge, Hardikar said information on all property in the region will be stored on the public ledgers while documents will bear a serial number to improve searching for information about a particular property to protect investors and lenders.

“For this, in the second stage, we will have a unique number on these registered property documents, which the bankers can put in the system and match,” Hardikar said. “If it doesn’t match, that means the document has been tampered with.”

Economic Times reported that the state’s registry was the first to begin e-registration of real estate in India, stemming from the COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. Hardikar notes that moving processes online and using DLT to authenticate transactions would gain significant traction in the country and worldwide.

Maharashtra State Board of Skill Development (MSBSD) leveraged DLT in issuing nearly 100,000 digital certificates on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain to prevent the duplication and manipulation of the certificates.

India’s Web 3.0 aspirations receive a major boost

For a long time, India’s influencers have operated independently in their quest to promote Web 3.0 in the country. In August, a group of enthusiasts came together to create the India Blockchain Forum (IBF).

The IBF is designed to serve as an advocacy platform for the industry and seeks to achieve several objectives, including creating an Indian blockchain stack, creating a talent pool for firms, and triggering a growth spurt for the ecosystem.

The creation of the IBF coincides with the release of a regulatory framework by the Telangana state government to improve collaboration amongst relevant stakeholders to improve the Indian digital assets ecosystem.

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