India Port Community System (PCS) has integrated CargoX’s Blockchain Document Transfer (BDT) platform to track transport documents.
This is revealed by World Cargo News, which states that the Slovenian company CargoX has announced the integration of its BDT platform with the Indian PCS, developed by India Portall Infosystems.
PCS is India’s governmental digital platform designed to integrate the electronic flow of documents and business information for India’s ports and other interested parties, such as shipping companies, container transport and storage stations, customs brokers, importers, exporters, railways, government regulatory agencies, banks, etc.
This is particularly useful to securely manage the exchange of documents and messages in electronic format.
The goal of the country is to digitize all business documents, including invoices. The process has been accelerated by the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, which has prompted the Government of India to consider new ways of recording transport documents in electronic format, including delivery orders, certificates of origin, letters of credit, and other commercial documents.
India Portall Infosystems successfully tested CargoX’s BDT platform, and thus the two entities entered into a partnership for the digitization of cargo documents and the transfer of business documents, given that BDT was found to comply with the Indian Ministry of Shipping’s document digitization requirements.
The integration of BDT into PCS will give the possibility to manage electronic documents more efficiently and more consistently in line with the need for social distancing.
PCS is currently in use in 13 Indian ports, and 6 more in other countries, with over 16,000 companies using it.
India and the blockchain sector
India could become the next crypto hub, following the country’s Constitutional Court declaring the cryptocurrency ban unconstitutional.
According to some local exchange managers, the unfreezing of the situation could lead to a massive adoption of cryptocurrencies in India, a country that actually wants to participate in the blockchain revolution.
In fact, India is first and foremost a country that imports a lot of goods from abroad but has a currency that is not particularly stable. Thus, for one thing, cryptocurrencies could help foreign trade.
India is the second-largest country in the world in terms of population, not far from China, so it could bring hundreds of millions of people into the crypto world.
It is a country that receives an exorbitant amount of remittances from abroad: in 2018 alone, 79 billion dollars were sent to India by Indians living abroad.
These are still sent through the traditional, slow and very expensive channels, but these could already be replaced by the new cryptocurrency channels.
Crypto regulation in India
Unfortunately, the crypto regulatory framework in the country is still not at all clear, but the change of attitude made in 2020 with the ruling of the Constitutional Court could spur the government to address this shortcoming.
After all, the lifting of the ban on the trading between crypto and fiat currencies in the country has already generated a trading upsurge, giving hope that this growth, if sustained, will create a solid local crypto industry that will push legislators to make everything legal and compliant.
In a country with few exchanges, the current crypto “spring” is already favouring the opening of new exchanges, making it inevitable that the authorities will become aware of the phenomenon.
In fact, it would be particularly useful if the government explicitly authorized these players so that companies and investors can start trading without any problems.
There are still very few Indians operating in these markets, often because they are not yet familiar with the functioning and technological implications of these new assets, and regulatory clarity in this regard could help not only crypto companies but also users themselves.
