Page 38 - ETP-April-May2020

BLOCK CHAIN

coming up with tender notices
for Block chain based Land re- “A LOT OF ACTIVITY IN BLOCK CHAIN
cords management system. TECHNOLOGY IS CENTRED ON FINANCIAL
• Trade finance and Letter of Credit APPLICATIONS, ASSET TRACKING, AND SUPPLY
applications have started growing. CHAIN. THE APPLICATION OF A FRAMEWORK
• HSBC India and ING Bank TO IDENTIFY VARIOUS ASPECTS IN THE
Brussels have successfully ex- MANUFACTURING SECTOR GIVES US AN IDEA OF
ecuted a block chain enabled, live
trade finance transaction jointly THE SEGMENTS THAT ARE AMENABLE TO THE
with Reliance Industries and Tri- APPLICATION OF BLOCK CHAIN TECHNOLOGY.”
con Energy on a R3 Corda pow-
ered platform. The block chain lion in 2017. This is 8 times more IBM has positioned to bring block
enabled Letter of Credit transac- than the same period in 2016. There chain adoption to financial institu-
tion facilitated shipment between are 15.2 million users. That is 0.2 tions, which have recognized the
Reliance Industries and Tricon percent of the global population. A technologies benefits but have been
Energy. Industry first integration new law paves the way for Bit coin cautiously slow to adopt it. Banks are
between an electronic Bill of Lad- to be more frequently used in daily accepting the block chain cloud plat-
ing provider and a block chain- transactions. The impact of block form from IBM. IBM has been se-
based trade finance platform ena- chain technology goes well beyond lected by a consortium of seven large
bled the transfer of title. Bit coin, it promises to re-make European banks to build and host
• Bank chain by SBI led consor- the banking and finance and insur- Digital Trade Chain, a trade finance
tium is exploring Block chain ance industries. It promises to create platform based on block chain, de-
for a variety of use cases like digital currency for all transactions. signed to simplify and facilitate do-
shared KYC / AML, syndication Block chain brings together shared mestic and cross-border trade for
of loans / consortium lending, ledgers with smart contracts to al- small and medium enterprises. IBM
trade finance, asset registry & low the secure transfer of any asset. has implemented enterprise block
asset re-hypothecation, secure Physical assets like a shipping con- chain to help quickly bring a highly
documents, cross border pay- tainer, financial assets like a bond, scalable system into production IBM
ments etc.. This is however un- and digital assets like music can be has collaboration with 10 food sup-
der a lot of experimentation and transported across any business net- pliers, including brands Nestlé, Ty-
has not stabilised. work. Block chain does for trusted son Foods, Unilever, Walmart, and
• Telengana Government is ex- transactions what the Internet did Kroger, to track food products from
ploring Block chain for Motor for information. farm to grocery store shelves in the
Vehicle Department applica- interest of efficiency and food safety.
tions to track the vehicle lifecy- For Supply Chain This market becomes a $2.5 billion
cle from manufacturing to end Block chain is a decentralised ledger market by 2024.
of warranty period & is evaluat- that can be used to streamline pro-
The Economic Times POLYMERS | April-May 2020
ing some PoCs. cesses while keeping them secure. In Conclusion
• West Bengal has implemented supply chains instead of each busi- Block chain can transform supply
Block chain based issuance of ness in the chain (manufacturer, chains, industries, and ecosystems.
Birth certificates to new born. shipper, buyer) all using their own Interestingly, even organisations like
paperwork for tracking and invoic- banks, that would appear to be los-
Market Forecasts ing, the block chain allows everyone ing out to the new technology, can
The digital ledger market for block to see each step in an open, secure see opportunities to exploit it in the
chain products and services is antici- ledger. IBM has a lead in block streamlining of their operations.
pated to reach $60.7 billion in 2024, chain technology. IBM has been In-depth transformation of supply
up from $708 million in 2017. IBM developing block chain to imple- chains will not happen overnight.
and Microsoft are driving block ment distributed databases. These However, supply chains can already
chain as their clients are making the are positioned to implement IoT start using block chain in some areas
transition to cloud services. Accen- and supply chain applications, go- of their operations.
ture has measurable market share as ing way beyond crypto-currencies.
well. Private investments into block IBM has put the technology into The author is a supply chain expert based
chain companies topped $4.5 bil- production for its own supply chain. in Dibrugarh, Assam

38