Bharat Web3 Association Names Ex-FICCI Secretary-General Dilip Chenoy as Chairman

The Bharat Web3 Association (BWA), on Monday, March 9, announced the appointment of its first chairperson four months after its formation in November 2022. Dilip Chenoy will now spearhead the plans and initiatives that will be backed or opposed by India's crypto advocacy body. Prior to this appointment, Chenoy has been part of several national industry bodies and helped in shaping up their business policies. The announcement, unmissably, comes in the backdrop of India hosting the annual G20 meetings this year and addressing several topics around crypto.

Chenoy, 64, as part of his new responsibilities, will be working with relevant authorities to foster the development of Web3 in India.

Previously, he served as the Secretary-General for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), as well as the Deputy Director General of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

“I am glad to be a part of this journey of making India a leader both in Web3 use case and adoption as BWA has taken up an ambitious task of nurturing the sector in collaboration with government and other key stakeholders,” Chenoy said in a prepared statement.

Members of India's crypto and Web3 companies came together to forge the BWA last year in order to collaborate with the government as well as the nationals to drive pro-industry initiatives into the nation. These companies include Polygon, CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Kuber, and WazirX among others.

In November 2022, when the BWA came into existence, it had already been four months since India's former Web3 advocacy group was dissolved owing to the snags in the sector's overall growth.

Called the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), the now disbanded body was founded in 2018 by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

The BWA, since its formation, has made its opinions heard around India's shaky stance on the crypto sector as well as on the tax policies enforced upon crypto investors.

“The BWA aims to highlight the impact of the existing tax provisions such as TDS, tax on income from VDAs, and not allowing carrying forward of losses on the wider industry and share its inputs on suitable amendments,” the body had said in December last year, conveying its concerns to the Indian finance ministry.

The group had urged the government to re-consider India's 30 percent tax on crypto gains as well as 1 percent TDS on each transaction — a plea that went untended to by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's office.

In February this year, the BWA joined forces with the Telangana government to stir discussions around the blockchain technology.

“I believe BWA, which is a collaboration between leading and like-minded entities in the Web3 and Digital Assets sector, has uniquely positioned itself to catalyse the growth and development of the ecosystem,” Chenoy added.