Blockchain Summit India 2019, the first edition of the Vision Blockchain 2030 initiative, successfully concludes at IIM Lucknow Noida Campus on 22-23 Feb 2019. The summit inaugurated with welcome messages by Shri Suresh Prabhu (Hon. Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India), Mr. Sanjay Kumar (Chief General Manager, HPCL), Mr. Nitin Seth (CEO, Incendo Inc. & Ex-COO Flipkart), Prof. Akbar Ansari (IIM Lucknow EIC) and Kumar Gaurav (Founder & CEO, Cashaa; Chairman, Auxesis Group). The summit has been supported by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and State Government of Uttar Pradesh.
Kumar Gaurav had opened the summit on 22 February with a keynote speech on “India redesigning a system of trust for the survival of the human race”, followed by an opening ceremony. The following day, Kumar moderated a panel onalternative equity investment providing new high return opportunities for Indians around the world, with representatives from Plutus VC, NeonVest, Bluford Capital and Smart Valor participating in the discussion.
Hon’ble minister of Commerce and Industry at this special occasion also announced the agreement signed with Government of UAE to learn and leverage blockchain technology in the e-governance of India. The 2 days summit observed the presence of over 80 global blockchain influencers and speakers to address 2300 participants joined at the summit. More than 50 VC & crypto funds together with a number of premium academic institutes including ISB, NUS, IIT-B,IIT-D IIM-S and others participated in summit to strengthen the Indian blockchain ecosystem. Representatives and bureaucrats from various ministries participated to take notes on empowering a blockchain ecosystem and include ideas in the current formulation of cryptocurrency regulation of India. The regulation is planned to be implemented by end of financial tenure. 10 panels were constructed to discuss topics of e-governance, supply chain, fintech, Aadhar (Indian identity system), cryptocurrency regulations, digital frauds, money laundering, ICOs & STOs, traditional funding and skills enhancement in blockchain.
A special highlight of summit was the launch of India’s first public blockchain network by Auxledger during the inaugural session. Auxledger’s public network enables business-ready functionalities including non-volatility of network fees and enabling data privacy in a public chain. The enterprise grade network is going to act as heart of Auxledger technology and will soon enable interoperability across the 100s of private Auxledger chains which are live already with over 60 million users of Indian State Governments. Auxledger, which also has been a partner of Cashaa for over a year, has been a preferred choice for blockchain infrastructure by the Indian Government, and many Fortune 500 Companies joined Auxledger as partners. With a live public network, Auxledger ecosystem is expecting to grow at exponential speed.
One of the largest summits hosted in the country had multiple elements to offer its mixed audience of policy makers, entrepreneurs, VCs, academicians and students.
Along with the stage conference, the main attractions of the summit included the Blockchain Expo, Blockchain Startup Pitch and Blockchain Masterclass. Shri Suresh Prabhu welcomed the ideas presented in the summit and mentioned that the technology offers great opportunity to think differently and bring in strategic ideas which the Government is looking forward to implement.
