Blockchain News This Week: India and the World

As blockchain technology begins to permeate the world’s various industries, India and the world catch up to the developments of this disruptive know how. Here is what has been happening in India and the world in blockchain.

Union Cabinet Signs MoU on Collaborative Research on Distributed Ledger and Blockchain Technology

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on collaborative research on Distributed Ledger and blockchain technology in the context of development of digital economy.  The research will be done by Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) with the participating member banks under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, namely Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social (BNDES, of Brazil), China Development Bank (CDB), State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank, of Russia) and Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

Cellular Operators Seek Blockchain Technology to Control UCC

Mobile phone operators in India are looking at blockchain technology-based solutions to control Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), or pesky calls and SMSes, as recommended by the telecom regulator. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is working to gather all the major players under one entity to deploy blockchain and limit these calls and SMSes.

Thai Central Bank Announces Project to Launch Central Digital Currency

COAI speaks for all key telcos in India, which includes Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, and Reliance Jio. The news has come in the wake of software major Microsoft and Tech Mahindra joining hands to form a blockchain technology-based solution to limit the problem of pesky calls and SMSes as recommended by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Wipro Joins BiTA

With an aim of adopting blockchain technology into the transportation industry, India’s 3rd largest software company Wipro has become a part of BiTA (Blockchain in Transport Alliance). The move entails taking advantage of blockchain technology to form a business use-case approach to bringing in solutions to complex logistics and transportation challenges.

BiTA is an industry group devoted to instituting blockchain standards for the freight industry. It has been created by experienced technology and transportation professionals to provide a forum for the development of blockchain standards and education for the freight industry. The group is a platform to grow and adopt common frameworks and standards with the help of which, industry players can form effective blockchain applications. With the help of this platform, Wipro intends to help in the thought process of platform-agnostic blockchain standards for the logistics and transportation industry.

Make Society Greener with Blockchain: Jack Ma

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, recently held in China, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba founder Jack Ma, said that blockchain technology should be used to create a greener society and to transform the manufacturing industry. He said that blockchain tech would be quite meaningless unless it helped transform the manufacturing industry and protect the environment.

South Korea’s LG UPlus Launches blockchain based payments system

South Korean cellular carrier LG UPlus has launched a blockchain based cross-career overseas payment. The payment system’s initial trial is to be rolled out by the first half of 2019. Cross-Carrier Payment System (CCPS) will deploy blockchain to enable a prompt settlement mechanism in the service.

Crypto Startup CoinRecoil Goes Live with Zero Fees on Coin Withdrawals

LG UPlus has signed a MoU to grow the new service along with global partners, Taiwan-based Far EasTone Telecommunications, Japan’s SoftBank, and US-based TBCASoft. With the help of this new service, users of one telecom carrier will be able to complete transactions on the payment networks of another without friction.

WEF Says 65 Blockchain Use-Cases Exist

In a recent report named, ‘Block(chain)s for a better planet’, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said that more than 65 use-cases of blockchain are possible, which can solve siginificant environment changes. It said that blockchain can be a catalyst in decentralizing energy and water management system, sustainable fundraising sources, carbon markets, etc.