Telangana To Use Blockchain To Deal With Spurious Drugs

Hyderabad, 18 Nov 2019:

Telangana, which successfully used blockchain’s distributed ledger technology for bringing reforms into land registrations, will shortly start two pilots. This time, it will focus on vehicle life-cycle management and to deal with counterfeits in drugs and medicines, said IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.

Speaking at the inaugural function of global blockchain standards conference at the MCR HRD Institute here on Monday, he batted for interoperability of technologies for faster and deeper adoption of technology. “The effort should be to establish global standards for blockchain and distributed ledger use,” he said.

He asserted that about 92 per cent of the blockchain-based products are still in the proof of concept stage and just 8 per cent of the products are being deployed. Even of this, a bulk of utilisation is from the Government side. Telangana is among the top States using blockchain in registration, education, small loans and B2B energy trading. TS now is fourth in terms of blockchain projects and also the range of subjects in which it is being used.

The official said the State is looking forward for common standards in use of blockchain as this will result in more people using it. Interoperability, scalability and security are key. Earlier, dependence was high on single vendors for software updates. Now, this is solved with interoperability products.

There is a need for transformation of proof of concepts into products. TS is also focusing on creating a blockchain community in Hyderabad. This is something unique in the country, he said.

With the growing interest in blockchain and distribution ledger technologies, standardization efforts have gathered momentum, particularly with International Organisation for Standardistaion setting up a technical committee on these, said JA Chowdary, LITD India Chair. Telangana Today