Algorand Aims to Make India Hotspot for Web3 Developers, Blockchain Projects: Anil Kakani

The team behind Algorand, a layer-1 blockchain, is going bullish on India's potential to grow the Web3 and blockchain market. In conversation with Gadgets 360, Anil Kakani, the Vice President and the India Country Head at Algorand Foundation said that onboarding as many Indian developers as possible onto the Web3 wagon is crucial for the development of the sector. Last week, Algorand Foundation launched its India-focussed initiative called ‘AlgoBharat'. With this, the organisation marked its presence in the nation's ‘aatmanirbhar' mission, that strives to make Indian industries completely self-reliant.

The blockchain technology, that India is keen on exploring, can provide eco-friendly solutions to a bunch of existing issues like maintaining fragile paper-based records as well as alterable healthcare and financial histories.

As more developers from Indian engineering institutes join the blockchain sector, more solutions towards permanent records and environment-friendly technologies could pave the way for broader use cases of the promising technology.

“The Telangana government aims to use blockchain to provide carbon credits to farmers who are using green, eco-friendly methods around agricultural procedures. These carbon credits can provide liquidity to farmers and help them financially. In addition, blockchain can eliminate the existing dependency on paper-based operations, whether it is maintaining official records or printing and managing cash notes. Making things more cost-effective, the authentic records saved on blockchains will slash the need of middlemen and brokers, thus cutting down the expenditures on the present day-to-day activities,” Kakani said, explaining the immediate practical use cases of blockchain.

AlgoBharat is looking to broaden the Web3 developer base in India, invest in promising projects, and enter strategic partnerships with the government as well as industry players.

In March, members of the Algorand Foundation, including Kakani met with nearly 50 Web3 startups in Hyderabad. Under AlgoBharat, the foundation will be offering mentorships to Web3 founders in India.

The platform joins the list of other sector leaders like Coinbase crypto exchange in engaging with Indian students to get them to hop onboard the sector.

In order to have a physical presence in India, Algorand has partnered T-Hub, which is an innovation hub and ecosystem enabler based out of Hyderabad. AlgoBharat will soon set up its India headquarter once T-Hub's campus is complete. 

“The industry needs serious developers and they must have a physical place to connect with and discuss potential innovations. Not just developers working on Algorand, but those exploring the use cases of other blockchains can also reach out to this space and connect with others working in blockchain and Web3. It would boost their overall productivity,” Kakani added.

Released in 2019, Algorand is a green, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. The developers of the blockchain claim to enable the convergence between decentralised finance (DeFi) and traditional finance. The Algorand blockchain vouches to be carbon negative, without having witnessed any zero downtime since its launch.

In December 2022, the government of Maharashtra had teamed-up with the Algorand blockchain and health tech firm MAPay to store health data as NFTs.