Indian government to use Blockchain to expose Drug Racket in the country

According to India’s policy think tank which is Niti Aayog. They are reportedly seen working on the blockchain concept proof-of-concept (PoC) in order to the crackdown on the Drug Rackets in the country. Through this research of their’s, they are trying to counterfeit the drug supply in the country through illegal means.

The National Institute of Transforming India, is the first and foremost body of the country which helps the government to make policy’s which are favorable for people, as their new mission is that they have to complete by the year’s end the working of the PoC which is said to be ahead of the real-world rollout in 2019, according to a local publication i.e. Factory Daily.  

A statement was given by an official of Niti Aayog whose identity is hidden by the everyone as he was not authorized to talk to the media: - “We are all taking those medicines and I am sure people are dying. One way to reduce that is put the entire supply chain on the blockchain.” The official also stated that the pharmaceutical companies and the government will be helped by this information. As both of them will be able to restrain the illegal drug supply in the country.

In 2017, a report was released by World Health Organization which stated that 20% of medicines which are sold in India are of sub-standard and fake.  Also, 35% of the counterfeit drugs which are sold globally are exported from the country itself.

These are claiming that there will be special identification codes or numbers which will be allocated to every single medicine of the country as this will help the authorities to track the entire supply of the consignment and this will be done by using blockchain technology. So, that at every stage of supply the medicine will be checked with their unique id and this which will ensure that the authenticity of medicine.

As per this for the consumers to check their medicines authenticity there will be a smartphone app launched in which the consumer can scan the QR code or the barcode of the medicine and they can get aware of the authenticity of the medicine they will be consuming. This will also help them to verify the manufacturing sources of the medicine also its entire supply chain. 

When the medicine is sold, the unique code “gets irrevocably audited on the blockchain” to ensure that the same ID isn’t duplicated to be used with spurious drugs, the official added.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is supposed to be investing around $28 Billion for the trial of this experiment. Though all are apprehensive about it.

“Fake drugs are a concern and if blockchain can help the industry to get rid of the problem we are up for it,” DG Shah, secretary general of industry lobby Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance said of the trial. “If the government is willing to consider it that is an additional cost and compensate it, the industry will have no objection,” he added.

According, to the recent reports the NITI officials are already negotiating themselves in a number of Blockchain PoC trials which will be held in different sectors of the country which will include education sector, healthcare, also the agriculture sector. The Indian government is trying very hard to achieve the blockchain system in the country both federally and stately, it also falls mandate in the line with the prime minister of the country who has called upon the rapid adaptation of this technology in the country.

Blockchain Industry Predominant in Business World: EU Officials

Said by Andrus Ansip, the European Commission’s Vice-President that the EU nation has decided to commit to the blockchain technology and now it will be moving out of the lab and is now going to be a mainstream.

There has been a speech which contains the central theme of the digitization by the vice president of the European Commission- the executive arm of the European Union has pinpointed in their speech that EU is ought to commit to EC’S vice-president for their technology of the blockchain. 

The official was offering the opening remarks of the European Union’s annual ‘Digital Day’ initiative held in Brussels this year when he stated:

“I would like to see EU countries make a similar commitment [as with AI] to blockchain technologies – now moving out of the lab and going mainstream. As with AI: we should make the most of this new opportunity to innovate.”

The officials present at EU have called the national government along with the private sectors of the country which have a huge contribution to the cause which was being addressed at the platform.

As per reports the EC now says it will invest €300 million in projects directly related to the use of blockchain technology. The Commission also revealed it is laying the groundwork required to establish a European Blockchain Partnership in order to promote “interoperable infrastructures”, presumably between EU nations, to enhance and foster trusted digital services.

Myths about the Bitcoins and how can they be Busted: Expert Takes

Expert Takes has voiced the opinion of their leaders from the inside and outside of the crypto industries who have expressed their views, also have shared their views on their experience and gave their professional advice. Expert Takes had covered everything from the Blockchain technology and ICO who are funding the taxation, regulation and cryptocurrency adoption in different sectors of the economy.

The Prices of Bitcoin when goes way too high

The fact cannot be ignored that the Bitcoins have always more than 60 percent from its high time, the price of      1 Bitcoin- around $ 7,000 at some time of writing, this discouraged a lot of people from entering the market. Since the mid of 2017, it is only Bitcoin which has been on the front pages of most of the newspapers still most of the people of the world are clueless as to how can they buy the Bitcoin even if not a whole but even a fraction of it. So let’s set the record straight: 1 Bitcoin can be divided into 100 million satoshis (the smallest Bitcoin unit). Just because one cannot afford a full gold bar - which are $600,000 a piece - does not mean one cannot buy a gold coin or invest as little as $126 through a Gold ETF to get exposure to gold. The same thing can be done with Bitcoin.

The Price of Bitcoin is very Unpredictable 

No arguments can be made on the statement that the price of the Bitcoins varies a lot in nature. So before investing in it, the investors have to think a lot as all they hope is to gain profit instead of gaining losses after such a huge investment. It is for the first time in the history of currencies that a currency is not under any central bank or country. Cryptocurrency is a stand-alone individual currency which doesn’t have an owner above its head.

Cryptocurrency is very volatile and they have a large speculation around the world. Also, its assets have a large spread in the world of finance. So if someone wants to invest in cryptocurrency they should know about it thoroughly and should only invest if they can afford to face some loss in the trade. The most valuable thing you can invest in it is time. If we have time then there are very fewer chances for someone to face loss in their investment.

Bitcoin is very harmful to the Finance Environment

It is said that if the origin of something is unknown to us it can never be good for the health and environment around us. The saying is a perfect for the Bitcoins as it is said to be mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, back in 2009 whose identity is unknown to the world except for the name.

The mining of this cryptocurrency took only 10 minutes to be mined through a simple laptop and has mined a block for itself as it does today. The puzzle through which you mine is pretty difficult for a person to crack as the algorithm used for it is quite different and difficult for people to understand. But after solving it we receive a reward within the span of 10minutes that is the average time required to gain the reward.

The reason why the miners have invested billions of dollars in Bitcoins because due to its demand the price of the currency keeps rising high and high and then people gain profits from it. For e.g.- At $7,000 per Bitcoin, the current annual cost of the Bitcoin network is $4.6 bln, and a sizable portion of it spent on electricity bills. But what the Bitcoin network provides for this cost is a Blockchain that is unhackable by any existing computer or technology on the planet.

The currency is misused by the drug dealers and money launders

When the transaction of one bitcoin is made public, which is not exactly ideal as if you are looking to engage in illegal activities. There has been a release of two reports stating that only 1 percent of all Bitcoin transactions are used for money laundering and 44 is being used for other illegal activities. These anonymously as many exchanges follow Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) procedures when registering users. This is where criminals using cryptocurrencies will get caught as law enforcement agencies are monitoring these exchanges. So cash will probably remain the currency of choice for criminals for the time being.

Top Business School to Add Bitcoin Classes and Expand Cryptocurrency in the Offering of MBA Courses

It has been reportedly said that the top-ranked business schools are hoping to bitcoin bandwagon as they are wanting to expand their course by offering on cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

There have been offers made for more crypto-related MBA classes which are eventually growing more in demand by the students, as well as, by the corporate sector employers and recruiters, which are especially a part of the capital venture.

Spoken by a professor from one of the top MBA universities that- “Kevin Werbach, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, will teach a class in the fall of 2018 called “Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Distributed Ledger Technology.”

Reported in a report by CNBC that a beef up is going to take place in the top-notch MBA colleges about keeping in demand for their cryptocurrency course as a part of the MBA programme of the university. It is been said reportedly that after five years down the lane most probably very few business colleges will be having different classes from other schools. Most of them would not be reporting similar classes and courses after some time span. 

Stanford University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown are going to be adding more classes of cryptocurrency to their MBA programme classes in 2018 which will help them to keep the demand up amongst their students. A review from a student stated that- “ Itamar Orr, a second-year MBA student at Stanford, applauded the expanded course offerings, saying it will help students once they go out into the workforce.”

Orr also added by saying that there are many students present in the university who wanted to discuss the jobs related to the blockchain and the crypto market. Also, there had been a competitive air in the campus which gives you an advantage and an extra hammer in your toolbox for grabbing marks. Approximately a Venture-capital investment had taken place which in the starting had ballooned up to $911 million, in the previous year, which was a higher percentage from 2016, according to a report from Pitchbook.

Susan Athey, a professor at the Stanford Business School said that-

“The fluctuations in the prices have everyone mesmerized: Just how did this happen? Many people have gone boom or bust. A that’s, of course, exciting, attracts a lot of interest, and motivates people to understand what’s going on.”