NO MORE EXCUSES: Systemic corruption must end, governments must embrace blockchain

Diamond merchant Nirav Modi siphoned $2222.22 Millions dollars from a nationalised bank in India called Punjab National Bank recently and fled the country.

Before Nirav Modi, it was alcohol baron Vijay Mallya who defrauded another Indian bank over $1 billion. The Indian government is caught up in a heated extradition tussle with the UK government to get Vijay Mallya back to India. Just like Mallya's case, the Indian government is looking for Nirav Modi in the US. Again at the expense of tax payers' money.

Modi and his uncle Mehul Chokso used employees in the bank and produced letters of undertaking to siphon the money out. Such mammoth cases of corruption is not new to India. The incidents are obvious and it's mostly public money that's robbed off.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have registered two FIRs each in this case and are pursuing the matter aggressively again adding to additional costs to public.

With such frequent incidents happening in India, the current government has no other option but to explore blockchain as a technology to stop corruption. In India it becomes pivotal for nationalised banks to introduce blockchain technology into its loan transactions so that such fraudulent activities end.

Technological advances has made it easier to bring in transparency and accountability to public financing to reduce corruption. Smart contracts can prevent risks arising from mismatched accountability. It can also ensure the corrupt stand to lose if they are found misbehaving.

Construction is one area where massive amounts of money get swindled in developing countries. Especially with harsh weather conditions in some parts of India, frequent repairs of roads are a mandatory exercise. It's a known fact that engineers involved in Public Works Development get immensely rich in India because of the levels of corruption in the sector.

Photo courtesy: Business Today

Blockchain can identify the users of public funds and the work they have done in a matter of seconds. Instead of spending millions of dollars in investigating corruption, blockchain can fully mitigate such risks of theft.
Two per cent of World GDP is lost due to corruption. Imagine if we plug this hole using crypto currency and blockchain technology, the pace of development in third world and emerging economies will drastically increase.

Indian Prime Minister Modi recently tweeted how India should embrace blockchain technology to its advantage. Tweetig is not enough. If PM Modi is serious about fighting corruption, he needs to adapt blockchain technology into governance. We have the solution, so why wait?

Or rather, why wait for the American administration or some European country to adapt tis technology when the money lost in the third world, especially India is at an unimaginable scale.

Overlooking this critical technology in today's environment makes world leaders accountable and liable for such ongoing public theft. It's the duty of any public leader to speed up adoption of blockchain technology to the banking sector and infrastructure projects. Anymore delay in embracing blockchain will be contributing to more wastage and poverty in the third world.