THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Trust is indeed one of the central issues of the 21st century business world, said Bob Tapscott, Author at Blockchain Research Institute, Canada.
Making his maiden visit to India for attending the three-day summit, ‘BlockHash Live 2018’, organized by the Kerala Blockchain Academy (KBA) at Hotel Uday Samudra, Kovalam, Tapscott stressed that the KBA’s initiative will pave the way for creating talented blockchain experts who can excel in global stage. Bob Tapscott will address a special session on December 8 at the summit.
Dr K.M. Abraham, Chairman, Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-Disc), who inaugurated the summit today, said blockchain technology fascinates people in different ways. “Trust is one of the major aspects of blockchain. It’s a brilliant technology, and its fundamental premise is building a network of trust. Through the Accelerated Blockchain Competency Development (ABCD) programme, we aim to take position as an early mover and entrench in the competitive market,” he said.
The summit offers a rare opportunity for the global businesses in blockchain to look into expansion of their operations in Kerala in particular and India in general.
Dr Abraham said: “In 2025, 10 per cent of the world’s GDP will be stored in blockchain. Blockchain cannot be explained as a phenomenon but it is a marching phenomenon which is slowly advancing like a tsunami and everything will sway in its progression. The question is that are we going to be overpowered by it or empowered by it.”
In his presidential address, Madhavan Nambiar, Chairman, IIITM-K, said that over the last couple of years the government of Kerala has been working very hard with various stakeholders to ensure the state become a digital state and a digital economy. “Data is the new oil and IT firms are the refineries. So if that is the case, we really have to see how we can value add the new ‘oil’—Data.”
“As APJ Abdul Kalam said, the most important thing is to ensure technologies reach the poor and underprivileged in such a way that they are able to use it, leverage it and improve the quality of their lives. This is exactly what K-Disc is doing by ensuring it across departments. Blockchain is an example of this endeavour that we are looking at,” he pointed out.
Dr Saji Gopinath, Director, IIITM-K said, “We should continue to be on the forefront of technology. That’s basically the reason why we have now centres of excellence looking at newer areas of development. We have a machine learning group, geographic information system (GIS) group and a group on vernacular computing.”
Speaking at the function, Jennifer Greyson, Founder and CEO, Neureal; said, “We are at the forefront of a technology that has the ability to shape the world.” Dr Asharaf, Professor-in-charge, KBA was also present.
Top blockchain experts and thought leaders from around the world are attending the summit for sharing ideas and leading discussions on collaborative opportunities in leveraging the technology for public good. The meet will also look into the possibilities for the companies using blockchain to step up their presence in Kerala.
Other lead speakers attending the event are Dr. Dilip Krishnaswamy, Vice President, Reliance Jio Infocomm; Sudin Baraokar, Global IT Innovation Advisor; Dr. Sushmita Ruj, Assistant Professor, ISI Kolkata; Mahesh Govind, CEO, DigiLedge; Prasanna Lohar, Head – Innovation, DCB Bank Ltd.; Rajarshi Mitra, blockchain researcher, Blockgeeks; Akarsh Agarwal, Director of Tech, Blockchain Education Network; and Navas Ebin Muhammed, MLG Blockchain, Canada.
An initiative of the Government of Kerala, KBA comes under the diverse portfolio of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management –Kerala (IIITM-K).
