On March 28, the Singapore-based blockchain platform Algorand Foundation launched a new office AlgoBharat in India. The team behind the AlgoBharat project revealed that the new office would support India to transition smoothly from the Web2 to Web3 space.
The team announced that the AlgoBharat would provide the Indians with endless benefits from blockchain technology. The Algorand entrance to the Indian market aims at addressing the challenges posed by the fallout of Silicon Valley, Silvergate Capital and Signature banks.
The AlgoBharat project team plans to improve the usability of blockchain technology in India to cope with the global market.
Significance of the AlgoBharat
A statement from the Algorand Foundation vice president Anil Kakani revealed that India is at the edge of transitioning from centralized finance to Web3 space. Kakani believes that through innovation, India will be at a competitive advantage.
Based on Kakani’s findings, India leads other populous countries in high blockchain adoption that could be a game-changer in crypto utility. The possibility of entering the Indian market compelled the Algorand team to engage scholars and investors strategically.
Kakani confessed to engaged an Indian scholar Nikhil Varma to conduct market research on blockchain adoption in university and pro-crypto constituencies in the region. He stated that the collaboration with Varma complied with the Indian regulation.
Kakani plans to lead the Algo team to engage the India regulators in the coming months to discuss on matters concerning the compliance of AlgoBharat.
After the impending private consultation with Indian regulators, Kakani plans to develop resolute strategies to work closely with other regional players, including the Italian national bank and law enforcers from the Marshall Islands, to support the development of the CBDC project. However, Kakani demonstrated some concern with the stricter Web3 regulation in India.
AlgoBharat Long-Term Objective
In support of Kakani’s speculation, Varma argued that the crypto regulatory framework adopted in India demonstrated practicality. He confirmed that the latest regulatory action on Web3 projects protects Indian investors from Anti-money laundering (AML) concerns.
Additionally, Kakani observed that adopting restrictive security protocols, including Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and AML regulations, will enable India to meet the ever-evolving institutional needs. Kakani announced the operation of the AlgoBharat will be guided by three main pillars.
Firstly, the AlgoBharat project will create more learning opportunities on Web3-related topics for university students. The AlgoBharat office will provide human and technical support to early startups in the traditional finance sector.
Kakani and the team plan to partner with leading India-based financial providers and government agencies in the long run to promote Web3 growth. He remains optimistic that the high number of Indian population will adopt the innovative solution crucial to shift to the Web3 space.
In the meantime, the collaboration with the Indian authorities is in progress. A few months ago, the Algorand team closed a partnership agreement with legislators in the Maharashtra state to develop more than 1000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The Maharashtra residents plan to utilize the NFTs to document their personal health information. Algorand team intends to work closely with the Ahmedabad-based non-profit firm Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to create opportunities for women to learn more about blockchain technology.
Also, the Algorand team will work with learning institutions, including Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and the famous Indian School of Business, to launch blockchain-related studies. The team will collaborate with an Indian business incubator T-Hub to establish research centres for blockchain projects.
India Crypto Adoption
The entrance of the Algorand team to India will push for high crypto adoption, which is in line with the Reserve Bank’s objective. The Indian pro-crypto politicians have spearheaded harmonizing crypto regulation among the G-20 countries.
After embroiled motions, the Indian regulators proposed that Web3 and blockchain technology be unclassified as crypto. The legislator plans to leverage India’s G-20 presidency to formulate acceptable crypto regulations, which will be implemented the following winter.
According to the previous Union budget of 2022, the Indian regulators had proposed including a 30% tax on cryptos. Also, the Indian crypto-proponents are expected to disclose their crypto profits and losses when formulating their income reports.
