State IT dept to host discussion on Block Chain technology

Kolkata: The state IT department will organise a think tank discussion on Block Chain technology on December 6 involving stakeholders across the country who have been working with this technology. The meeting will be held at the IT department itself and the department plans to frame a clear-cut strategy on the basis of the deliberations in the meeting and accordingly prepare a road map.

"We have selected block chain as a technology for the future and it will be the anchor theme for Bengal's strategy in the IT World in the short and medium term. Block Chain has deep linkages to FinTech, data sciences and cyber security and all of these are related to each other at a deep level," additional Chief Secretary IT, Debashis Sen said. According to an official in the IT department BlockChains provide secured public databases that are free from cyber attacks.

"This technology is the basis of bitcoins, ethereums and initial coin offerings in the realm of FinTech zone. Blockchain is linked to data sciences in public database managements," he added. It is learnt that there are only a handful of experts across the country who are working on this and Bengal wants to take the lead. It is learnt that to begin with the government is planning to bring this technology for land records. "This technology has been embraced by a number of foreign shopping malls and foreign banks already, even though the Reserve Bank of India has not endorsed Block Chain technology when it comes to financial methods.