Telangana, the newest state of India almost a year after announcing a partnership with Tech Mahindra to create a Blockchain district, has now published a draft policy for Blockchain with incentives to attract companies to the state.
Along with financial and non-financial incentives, the policy focuses on four major pillars for increasing blockchain adoption in the state.
- Developing Talent Pool
- Supporting Infrastructure
- Promoting Research and Innovation
- Enabling Collaboration and Building Community
The government will work with industry leaders and pioneers to strengthen the above mentioned pillars. On the education side, the government intends to add blockchain to the curriculum of colleges and create a certification agency for developers.
The draft policy also mentions subsidised rates for office space, land and even tax breaks to startups. Along with it, the government plans to create shared services for office space as well as software and IT.
To promote research and innovation, Telangana government will subsidise costs for research and even provide a grant of 10% to selected projects. The government will help open academia in the district and will invite companies to form incubators and accelerators for Blockchain Startups.
On top of all this, in order to develop a community the government will offer multiple avenues to launch events and gatherings at subsidised costs. The government will also reimburse partial expenses for attending selected events abroad. A virtual community will be setup to collaborate and even exchange job offers.
To incentivise development, the government will provide multiple financial incentives like subsidised rentals, 100% SGST rebate, cost rebate for filing patents and certifications, start-up grant of INR 10 lakhs to selected projects and many more.
To begin with the Telangana government wants to focus on four verticals:
- Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI)
- Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare
- Government departments & Institutions
- Logistics & Supply Chain
Telangana government’s Blockchain policy is all set to develop Hyderabad into one of the top 10 blockchain cities in the world. However, the government is not keen on promoting tokenisation, which would discourage a lot of projects to work from India.
We have broken down the entire Telangana Blockchain Policy in the video below. Check it out:
Cover Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
