An IIT Kanpur-incubated start-up, CRUBN, is all set to collaborate with the Government of Karnataka to develop a state-of-the-art blockchain network for all eGovernment Procurement (e-GP) systems across the country. CRUBN provides blockchain solutions for government and business entities across the globe. The start-up has teamed up with Karnataka's Centre for Smart Governance, which is a premier software development agency of the state government. The blockchain network will act as a decentralised trust and efficiency layer for all e-GP systems.
But what is the e-GP system? e-GP systems cater to the procurement and tendering requirements of various government departments and organisations. Though e-GP systems have contributed to enhanced efficiency and transparency in government procurement, there is potential for further advancement of the existing systems.
This blockchain network will be used for validating the claims of suppliers along with their identities. The proposed system will connect all the e-GP systems through a network, which will help retrieve and validate relevant supplier data between various e-GP Systems that are in use within India. The proposed system will also digitise bank guarantees by powering them using the trust-based automation of blockchain. When fully operational, this system will be a pan-India system that would reduce the time and cost associated with public procurements made using e-GP systems.
This partnership aims to ease the hassle of the existing systems by making more than 50 operational e-GP systems across the country interoperable, which, up till now, work individually. Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, said, “We have a dynamic space within the Start-up Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) that helps in breeding innovations. All the start-ups backed by the SIIC have been contributing to the country in various means, and in time of crucial need.”
Key highlights of the project:
• This blockchain network will be governed by the terms and conditions decided by the consortium of the e-GP systems across the country.
• The blockchain system can be used as the national de-duplicated supplier datastore.
• Any e-GP system can depend upon the trust that Blockchain guarantees to authenticate supplier details. This will potentially save enormous costs associated with tender processing and make the process simpler and efficient.
• Bank guarantees will also be pushed to this system in a tokenised and privacy-preserving manner to maintain integrity.
• Tokenisation of bank guarantees would mean that they will become a more acceptable instrument of transaction than they are now.
CRUBN was incubated at IIT Kanpur, for Phase-III of the National Blockchain Project, funded by the National Security Council Secretariat and envisioned to build e-governance solutions using blockchain technology.
