National Payments Corporation of India to develop blockchain solution

The National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is considering developing a highly scalable blockchain solution to reinforce digital payments, Business Today reported.

In a recent notification, it said:

"NPCI intends to develop a resilient, real time and highly scalable blockchain solution. It is proposed to develop this solution using an open source technology/ framework/solution.”

On these lines, the NCPI has floated an Express of Interest (EOI) to enable bidders to propose their capability for developing distributed ledger technology/blockchain in the payment domain.

According to the eligibility criteria, the bidder should be a legally registered entity and should provide a reference of at least 2 blockchain implementations (global or domestic) which are currently in production and have live transactions taking place.

In addition, the bidder must have at least 25 certified blockchain professionals along with an implementation experience in blockchain.

The last date for bid submission is April 23, 2019.

The NCPI was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks Association (IBA). Currently, 56 banks are shareholders of NPCI. Out of which 19 are public sector banks (PSB), 17 private sector banks, 3 foreign banks, 7 multi-state cooperative banks, and 10 regional rural banks.