New Government, New Hope for Cryptocurrencies in India

The title of this post might look a bit controversial to some.

Many people are disappointed with the re-election of Narendra Modi as his government in the past was too conservative about cryptocurrencies. The biggest set back to the crypto community was the banking ban on crypto exchanges in India put by RBI last year.

I know, many would say where is the new government when electors mandated the same Narendra Modi led BJP party to make the government at the center. Although Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister may be a repeat in this term, it doesn't imply the government will be same.

There will be a huge shuffling of cabinet ministers that will bring in several new faces at the helm. And the most important is the portfolio of Finance Ministry. Owing to poor health of current finance minister Arun Jaitley, I don't think he is going to continue as a FM in this government. So there are high chances to see a new person as our Finance Minister.

The most probable name doing the rounds is of Piyush Goel who was the Coal & Railway Minister in the last tenure and also played an important role of interim Finance Minister when Arun Jaitley was not available due to his poor health. 66 years old Arun Jaitley is diabetic and was undergoing treatement of cancer and transplanted his kidney in a US hospital.

Piyush Goyal looks a more suitable candidate as he is a trained Chartered Accountant. He also has got an experience of serving on the board of India's largest commercial bank viz. State Bank of India and also Bank of Baroda

So I hope he may infuse a fresh thinking in the finance sector and can understand the matter of blockchain and cryptocurrencies better.

In fact, if any other party had won this election, I didn't have any better hopes as far as the matter of cryptocurrencies is concerned as no one from other political parties has demonstrated their interest in cryptocurrencies.

At least, Narendra Modi knows the new world terms like blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data and internet of things. He has repeated these words in his past speeches with a lot of hopes from these new technological solutions.

Aside that, last government has done a lot of homework in understanding these new technologies. Some committees were also set up to study the nuances of regulating or banning of cryptocurrencies in India.

There is a time for everything. Time for cryptocurrencies is going to come soon. It depends how much cryptocurrencies get officially recognized in major part of the world. If all the world is recognizing it, India can't be left out and has to do something about it too.

So, more the delay in taking the decision regarding cryptocurrencies, the more better for the chances of its approval by the government. Therefore, let's wait for the future with positive hopes. Everything will be great!