Modi hails blockchain as opportunity in frontier technology

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, puts India in the running as the next investment haven as he pitches opportunities in the emerging tech sector

In a keynote given during last Wednesday’s India Ideas Summit, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, spoke strongly in favour of blockchain technology as an ‘opportunity in frontier technology’. 

“Opportunities in technology also include opportunities in the frontier technologies of 5G, Big data analytics, Quantum computing, Blockchain and Internet of things,” he said.

Modi also pitched the idea of India as a potential tech haven for investors, endorsing a number of emerging technologies, including blockchain. His speech has helped to dampen rumours that lawmakers were planning a ban on crypto companies – despite the March Indian Supreme court ruling in favor of crypto exchanges and startups – opposing the decision made by the Reserve Bank of India in April 2018 to block domestic financial institutions from providing banking services to crypto exchanges.

A draft law, from July 2019, that proposed all forms of cryptocurrency be banned, is still floating around, which has led to general uncertainty, including an ominous article published this June in Indian publication, The Economic Times and a number of banks maintaining their refusal to deal with digital currencies. 

As first reported by CoinDesk, Sumit Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX, one of the country’s largest exchanges, said that “reconsidering past bills is likely part of the process of forming clearer regulations around the use of cryptocurrencies within India.”

Modi added that half a billion people in India have already been connected to the internet and another half a billion are awaiting connection. This presents a major opportunity for companies to expand into a large market, he said.

The PM stated that during the last six years, India has made many efforts to make its economy more open and reform-oriented.