Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launches Blockchain India Challenge

Key facts

• S. Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), launched the Blockchain India Challenge on 23 February 2026 at the MeitY headquarters in New Delhi.
• The initiative is implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to encourage Indian startups to develop permissioned blockchain-based solutions for government use cases.
• The challenge focuses on ten primary domains: e-procurement, supply chain management, public distribution systems, education, healthcare, agriculture, power, IoT-enabled governance, land records, and sustainability.
• Startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will receive stage-wise financial support to develop ten impactful blockchain-based use cases.
• The programme aims to integrate a cryptographic trust layer into India's existing Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to ensure transparency, auditability, and tamper-proof record management.
• The initiative specifically promotes permissioned blockchain architectures rather than public, permissionless systems to preserve regulatory oversight and sovereign control.
• The launch followed the India AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi, where policymakers deliberated on sovereign compute and foundational models.