Govt Unveils Vishvasya Blockchain Tech Stack for Advanced Digital Solutions
At an event hosted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, S. Krishnan, Secretary of MeitY, introduced the Vishvasya Blockchain Technology Stack. This new service provides Blockchain-as-a-Service with a geographically distributed infrastructure, designed to support a range of permissioned blockchain applications.
In addition, the Secretary of MeitY also launched the NBFLite-Lightweight Blockchain Platform and Praamaanik, a cutting-edge blockchain solution for verifying the origin of mobile apps, along with the National Blockchain Portal. With the aim of establishing trusted digital platforms, MeitY introduced the National Blockchain Framework (NBF) to promote research and application development, thereby ensuring state-of-the-art, transparent, secure, and reliable digital services for 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.
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.
At the launch, S. Krishnan, Secretary of MeitY, emphasized that the National Blockchain Framework would be crucial in enhancing security, trust, and transparency for various citizen-centric applications, as part of the Government of India's efforts to deliver reliable digital services. He also urged stakeholders to work towards establishing India as a global leader in blockchain technology, promoting the adoption of developed solutions worldwide, and using blockchain to drive economic growth, social development, and digital empowerment.
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.
Smt. Sunita Verma, Scientist G and Group Coordinator for R&D in Electronics & IT at MeitY, explained that the goal of the National Blockchain Framework (NBF) is to create a scalable framework using a Blockchain technology stack on a distributed infrastructure. This initiative aims to tackle challenges such as the shortage of skilled professionals for developing blockchain applications, vendor lock-in issues, and research challenges related to security, interoperability, performance, and other factors.
Shri Magesh E, Director General of C-DAC, noted that the National Blockchain Framework (NBF) is a collaborative effort aimed at addressing research challenges and leveraging the technology to develop applications in partnership with government organizations. This initiative has already resulted in numerous patents and research publications. Ms. P.R. Lakshmi Eswari, Centre Head at C-DAC Hyderabad, provided an overview of the technical features of the National Blockchain Framework and detailed the Praamaanik solution, which uses blockchain technology to verify the origin of mobile apps.
