The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) — which has a shareholding base of 56 banks — is considering the use of blockchain technology for digital transactions, furthering its goal to become the “best payments network globally.”

According to Business Today, the NPCI was established with the support of the nation’s central bank — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — and the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to serve as an umbrella agency for all retail payments in the country.

The organization said in a statement, “NPCI intends to develop a resilient, real-time and highly scalable blockchain solution. It is proposed to develop this solution using an open source technology/ framework/solution.”

To this end, the NPCI has issued an Express of Interest (EOI) calling on bidders to submit proposals for developing a blockchain platform with the goal of facilitating and increasing the efficiency of digital payments. Bids up for submission include the Liaisoning Consultant (LC) to acquire End-to-End Statutory permissions for Construction of Captive Data Center (CDC) in the cities of Chennai and Hyderabad.

Services provided by the NPCI include cheque clearance and digital payments. It has also developed an instant payment system known as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). According to the agency, UPI is becoming more popular in India, with the number of transactions soaring over the past year.

All eyes are now on India, as global consultancy PwC has projected that by 2023, the South Asian country will become one of the global leaders in blockchain technology.

Source: www.businesstoday.in