Government launches Vishvasya-Blockchain Technology Stack to enhance digital trust and governance

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched the Vishvasya-Blockchain Technology Stack, a framework offering Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) through a geographically distributed infrastructure. The new framework is introduced by MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan and aims to strengthen digital trust and service delivery.

Along with the Vishvasya stack, MeitY also unveiled the NBFLite platform, a lightweight blockchain designed for startups and academia, and Praamaanik, a blockchain-enabled solution for verifying mobile app origins.

National Blockchain Framework to Enhance Digital Trust and Service Delivery

MeitY, with the vision to create trusted digital platforms, initiated National Blockchain Framework (NBF) for promoting research and application development; facilitating state of the art, transparent, secure and trusted digital service delivery to citizens.

National Blockchain Framework technology stack is architected with Distributed Infrastructure, Core Framework functionality, Smart Contracts & API Gateway, Security, Privacy & Interoperability and Applications development offering Blockchain as a Service (BaaS). NBF currently supports two permissioned Blockchain platforms and is extensible. The Technology Stack is hosted on geographically distributed infrastructure at NIC Data centers i.e. Bhubaneswar, Pune, Hyderabad.

Blockchain Sandbox for Startups and Academia

NBFLite, a Blockchain sandbox platform, is developed especially for startups/academia for rapid prototyping of applications, carrying out research and capacity building. These technologies have been developed by collaborating efforts of C-DAC, NIC, IDRBT Hyderabad, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad and SETS Chennai under the MeitY support.

National Blockchain Framework to Boost Security and Transparency for Citizens

During the launch, S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY expressed that as part of the efforts of Government of India for providing trusted digital service delivery, the National Blockchain Framework would play an important role in enabling security, trust and transparency for various citizen centric applications. He also highlighted that the stakeholders should aim to position India as a global leader in blockchain technology and proliferate the developed solutions for Global adoption, leveraging it to drive economic growth, social development, and digital empowerment.

Blockchain’s Role in Transforming Governance

Bhuvnesh Kumar, Additional Secretary, MeitY, highlighted that the Blockchain technology holds immense potential for transforming governance in India by making public services more transparent, efficient, and accountable. He stressed the need for scaling the applications on NBF across various states & departments and also suggested to explore onboarding new applications/ platforms/ innovative components on the NBF stack.

NBF’s Goals for Addressing Challenges

Sunita Verma, Scientist G and Group Coordinator, R&D in Electronics & IT, MeitY mentioned that the objective of initiating NBF is to develop an extensible framework with Blockchain technology stack on distributed infrastructure towards addressing the challenges such as need for skilled manpower towards building Blockchain based applications, vendor lock-in and research challenges related to security, interoperability, performance and other aspects.

Magesh E, Director General, C-DAC, mentioned that the NBF is a consortium mode effort towards addressing research challenges and harnessing the benefits of the technology to develop applications in association with Government organizations. A number of patents and research publications are generated as part of this initiative.

P R Lakshmi Eswari Centre Head, CDAC Hyderabad briefed about the various technical features of the National Blockchain Framework and explained about Praamaanik- Blockchain enabled solution for verifying mobile app origin.