Concept Note

Blockchain for Property Governance Conference

Day & Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Venue: Vivanta, Taj Ambassador, New Delhi (Near Khan Market)

Across the world, land registries are almost entirely badly kept, mismanaged or distorted. This lack of secure property rights is an endemic source of insecurity and injustice for the general public. However, technology has the potential to provide a solution to this problem. With the fast-paced world of fintech, technology is transforming the conventional financial industry. Sweden and Georgia are pioneering the application of blockchain for secure land record maintenance. The technology offers great potential to India’s property right governance, especially with the country’s current focus on digital India.

Against this background, the main aim of the Block Chain Technology Conference (BCTC) will be to foster dialogue between experts, international practitioners and policy makers to craft a model policy framework to aid in the adoption of the technology for property governance in India.

BCT and secure land rights

A blockchain with regard to property rights is a digital ledger, a record of accounts, of who owns what, and when. When applied to records of property titles, blockchain will eliminate the scope for forgery, tampering and destruction of records. It allows for smart contracts, and makes land title transfers much more convenient and efficient.

International experience

Some countries have started adopting the use of BCT while some others are cautiously exploring the option through pilots. Georgia, Honduras and Sweden are using the blockchain technology to conduct pilots for creating an immutable title records system. In Georgia, use of this technology is expected to allow more secure mortgages, contracts, and mineral rights. To model a property purchase records system using block chain and smart contract technology, ChromaWay is piloting the first block chain project in Sweden. The goal of the pilot is to evaluate the technology from a legal, business and IT perspective.

Scope for blockchain for land records in India

With Digital India, our country is currently undergoing the biggest fintech revolution in the world. But, despite a push for reform through the Digital India Records Modernization (DILRMP), India’s current land title system remains plagued with deficiencies. Challenges such as incomplete registration of land records, enormous time gap in updating title changes and forgery, and illegal mutation of title records are still palpable in the domain of property. Instituting a system of unerasable data records with a permanent audit trail will perhaps be a comprehensive solution to most of these problems related to secure property rights. It will make all transactions verifiable and accountable. Besides securing the rights of lawful owners of property, it will increase the level of trust in the system, improve ease of doing business, and reduce property related litigation. Banks and insurance companies will have to spend on the verification of records, leading to higher availability of credit , and reduced operational expenditure. Hence, adopting new technology will not only pave way for accountability and transparency in the system, but also secure the property rights of the citizens of this country.

The Conference

The conference will feature four focussed sessions:

Building Trust, Transparency and Security through Technology
Securing Property Rights through Blockchain– Global Case Studies
Opportunities and Challenges for distributed land registries in India
Public Policy for Blockchain and Data Protection

Key Speakers

Prof Sridhar Acharyulu, Central Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission
Dr Vishnu Chandra, Deputy Director General, DDG & Group Head – RS & GIS Utility Mapping and Urban Development, National Informatics Centre
Mr Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, Centre for Internet and Society
Mr J A Chowdary, Special Chief Secretary & IT Advisor to Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
Mr Sunil Kumar, Director of Land Laws and Policy, Landesa India
Mr Ambrish Mehta, Trustee, Action Research in Community Health and Development (ARCH) Gujarat
Dr. Ronald Meinardus, Regional Director, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, South Asia
Mr Nikhil Narendran, Partner, Trilegal
Mr Ananth Padmanabhan, Fellow, Carnegie India
Mr Guillermo Pena, CEO, Fundación Eléutera, Honduras
Mr Baladevan Rangaraju, Founder, India Institute & Co-founder, India Property Rights Alliance
Mr Vishal Batra, Blockchain Solutions Architect, IBM Research, New Delhi