In an exciting development, Indian authorities will soon enable their citizens to sign documents digitally through crypto tokens to secure transactions as part of a project to develop a national web browser. On August 9, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology[ MeitY] announced the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge.
It challenged programmers to build a native web browser using a Controller of Certifying Authorities [CCA] India root certificate. Organized by MeitY in association with CCA and C-DAC Bangalore, the IT ministry intended to “inspire and empower” startups and developers from all over the nation to include the capability of digitally signing documents using a crypto token that would be embedded into the browser.
The tournament will involve three rounds, according to a release. There will be a cap of 18 competitors in round one and eight participants after round two, with the winner receiving about $411k [34 million Indian rupees]. Since the announcement went public, over 200 participants have filed their names, including individuals, government agencies, academic institutions, businesses, and more.
Earlier, the IT department explored ways to leverage Web3 by building a native blockchain infrastructure. In fact, it updated its blockchain strategy in late 2021 and has been working on a project since June 2022.
India Building National Blockchain Infrastructure
Inspired by its global counterparts such as Europe’s EBSI and, to a lesser extent, the domestic arm of China’s Blockchain-based service network [BSN], India’s project is called the Unified Blockchain Framework.
It intends to provide a blockchain-as-a-service architecture by alleviating developers’ concerns about the labor-intensive process of setting up blockchain nodes, their security, or their interoperability with other blockchains. Additionally, it will offer sample smart contract templates for a range of use cases.
Recently, India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 cleared a major hurdle after receiving the green signal from the lower house of Parliament and is now pending approval in the upper house. The bill, a product of over five years of negotiations between the government, technology entities, and representatives of civil society, lays out the rules for how businesses and the government can gather and utilize data about Indian individuals.