Journey so far

Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal had already started deep diving into the enormous potential of Blockchain technology from 2017 onwards. A national level strategic meeting for promotion of blockchain in West Bengal was held at Department of Information Technology & Electronics on 6th Dec'2017 which hosted industry players from all parts of the country. Following that, the Department held a daylong knowledge workshop on Blockchain - 'Genesis' on 13 April 2018. Around 400 people from the Industry, Corporate, and Academia and Government sector participated in the said event. The event was welcomed and the effort of the Department was unanimously appreciated by all sector representatives. They were very happy in mentioning that the primary intention of the Department in creating awareness on Blockchain in Eastern India was very well achieved through this knowledge workshop. With this a message was also passed on to the Industry that how Government of West Bengal is seriously considering to build a holistic ecosystem around Blockchain in the State. Experts from Industry were expecting Government of West Bengal to come up with opportunities to implement blockchain based applications in Government sectors so that slowly but steadily awareness gets generated among industry-academia-administration circle that West Bengal is keen on hands-on promotion of emerging technology like Blockchain and Government is taking proactive steps in making that happen.

Our committed effort

To fully explore the potential of this rapidly evolving technology, Department of Information Technology & Electronics is developing several blockchain based applications and is in the process of creating a Centre of Excellence on Blockchain in West Bengal.

As a first endeavor, the Department of Information Technology & Electronics had identified that blockchain technology can be harnesses in maintaining transparency in crowdfunding management of any project. Thus the first live application in the country on project based crowdfunding management on Blockchain was created by Webel under the aegis of Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government of West Bengal. The solution leveraged blockchain technology to ensure that every transaction made by the donor is not only secured through the art of complex cryptography but also is completely transparent & immutable. A fully auditable trail is maintained through distributed ledgers, which are indelible and unforgeable.

To take the initiative further and develop a collective understanding on different aspects of Blockchain, Consensus 2018 is being organized where blockchain experts, corporates, start-ups, individuals around the globe are invited to share their insights on the technology, applications, use cases & best practices on capacity building and awareness generation.