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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

  • 05 April, 2021

  • 3 Min Read

Blockchain Enabled Interface for Indian Spices

Blockchain Enabled Interface for Indian Spices

Spices Board India and UNDP India's Accelerator Lab sign MoU to develop a blockchain-powered traceability Interface for Indian spices. This new interface will serve to enhance transparency in the supply chain and trade.

India is the largest exporter, producer and consumer of spices in the world.

What are Blockchains?

  • Blockchains are a new data structure that is secure, cryptography-based, and distributed across a network.
  • The technology supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and the transfer of any data or digital asset.
  • Spearheaded by Bitcoin, blockchains achieve consensus among distributed nodes, allowing the transfer of digital goods without the need for centralized authorisation of transactions.

How it operates?

  1. The technology allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure, peer-to-peer, instant and frictionless.
  2. It does this by distributing trust from powerful intermediaries to a large global network, which through mass collaboration, clever code and cryptography, enables a tamper-proof public ledger of every transaction that’s ever happened on the network.
  3. A block is the “current” part of a blockchain which records some or all of the recent transactions, and once completed, goes into the blockchain as a permanent database.
  4. Each time a block gets completed, a new block is generated. Blocks are linked to each other (like a chain) in proper linear, chronological order with every block containing a hash of the previous block.

Benefits of blockchain technology:

  • As a public ledger system, blockchain records and validate each and every transaction made, which makes it secure and reliable.
  • All the transactions made are authorized by miners, which makes the transactions immutable and prevent it from the threat of hacking.
  • Blockchain technology discards the need of any third-party or central authority for peer-to-peer transactions.
  • It allows decentralization of the technology.

About Spices Board

Spices Board is one of the five Commodity Boards functioning under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

It is an autonomous body responsible for the export promotion of the 52 scheduled spices and the development of Cardamom (Small & Large).

The main functions of the Spices Board are the following:

(i) Research, Development and Regulation of domestic marketing of Small & Large Cardamom;

(ii) Post-harvest improvement of all spices;

(iii) Export promotion of all spices and assisting exporters in technology upgradation, quality management, brand promotion, research & product development;

(iv) Development of spices in the North East;

(v) Regulation of quality of spices for exports through its quality evaluation services; etc.

Source: PIB


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