Indian Tech Giant Hopes to Partner With US to Develop Blockchain Technology

Tech Mahindra, the $6.3 billion tech giant of India, which generates $4.1 billion in annual revenue and employs around 120,000 people, has called for a partnership with the US to develop blockchain technology and implement it in the technology, telecommunications, and finance industries.

An interview with local publication Khaleej Times focused on the US government’s foreign worker policies and President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” campaign, Tech Mahindra CEO C.P. Gurnani stated that the US simply lacks the necessary engineering and technology talent to lead innovation. In an era of information and technology, Gurnani emphasized that the US must partner and cooperate with India and its companies to target blockchain technology, data automation, and artificial intelligence:

“[US and Indian companies need to collaborate] to build a win-win solution for a more experienced, more blockchain-ready, more automation-ready, more artificial intelligence-ready, more digital world-ready smarter workforce. We both need each other because we have the intellectual capital and they have the capital flow there. It is in our interest, and I think it is in President Trump’s interest, and also it is in the interest of the various governors.”

Gurnani further noted that the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank of the country, along with other commercial banks and major financial service providers have begun to actively discuss the potential of blockchain technology in processing cross-border and cross-bank transactions efficiently, securely and transparently, without the necessity of intermediaries.

Only a year ago, the RBI and the Indian finance industry was completely dismissive of bitcoin and the potential of blockchain technology in various industries and markets including finance, healthcare, and insurance. Within the past 12 months, the RBI has become much more aware of the blockchain’s capacity due to the consistent requests from leading local bitcoin exchanges and startups such as Zebpay, Unocoin, and Coinsecure for clarified regulatory frameworks on bitcoin and blockchain development.

“I look at opportunities. India went cashless for a brief period. Again the same currency has come back. Suddenly, the RBI was discussing blockchain… every bank was discussing it – because everybody wanted to embrace digital money. And the moment you embrace digital money, you want cryptocurrency, security, traceability, accountability,” Gurnani explained.

Tech Mahindra’s CEO is envisioning the type of fintech and blockchain partnership which many European countries are leading. In particular, BTCManager reported on July 31, 2016, that the UK secured a partnership with South Korea, one of the leading financial innovators in the world, to ensure startups in both regions can communicate, collaborate and cooperate within a productive ecosystem.

At the time, the UK’s Chancellor, Philip Hammond, said:

“The newly established FinTech bridge between the UK and the Republic of Korea is an important step for one of this country’s most exciting industries. The government is determined to help the UK FinTech sector to innovate and grow and to ensure that Britain remains the location of choice for FinTech startups.”

With organizations such as Hyperledger and IBM leading enterprise-grade blockchain development in the US and small blockchain startups cooperating with multi-billion dollar banks in the country, the US is starting to experience momentum in blockchain development and innovation. Indian technology companies including Tech Mahindra hope to partner with the US for the greater benefit of the global blockchain industry in the near future.

“Because when the change is happening, you do not know where the end result is. But if we do not take those calls, we are not leaders. And my desire is that all of us be the people who will ride the wave of automation, we will manage automation instead of automation managing us,” Gurnani noted.