Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is ready to introduce ‘one of the largest’ blockchain to digitalize the two of the most critical documents, that is, Bill of Lading and Letter of Credit transactions, making exchange and transportation of goods more uncomplicated and more efficient.
The Mukesh Ambani-led company’s blockchain plans will hit the systems in the next 12 months. The firm claims that it will be capable of fulfilling thousands of nodes operations on the first day itself with the astounding technology.
Mukesh Ambani announced its plan to introduce the Reliance blockchain network at its 42nd Annual General Meeting held in August. At the meeting, Ambani laid emphasis on the importance of the blockchain technology to modernize supply chain, agriculture produce, and other significant parts of the Indian economy.
He further added that using blockchain will provide the company an opportunity to invent a brand new model for data privacy, that will allow the customers to own and control the data, not the firms.
RIL had also announced a partnership with Microsoft to push technologies like data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, cognitive services, blockchain, and edge computing among SMEs.
The Reliance Industries share price jumped up by 19.5 points on NSE today.
What is the Bill of Lading and Letter of Credit?
According to Investopedia, a bill of lading is a legal document issued by a carrier to a shipper that details the type, quantity, and destination of the goods being carried. It is an important document and must accompany the shipped products, no matter the form of transportation, and must also be signed by an authorized representative from the carrier, shipper, and receiver.
According to Wikipedia, a letter of credit is a payment mechanism used in international trade to provide an economic guarantee from a creditworthy bank to the exporter of goods and are used extensively in the financing of international trade.
Blockchain potential in India
NASSCOM Avasant India Blockchain Report 2019 states that the growth potential with blockchain has been recognized by both private players and governments globally. More than 50 countries have already started pushing initiatives to develop a blockchain ecosystem in their economies.
However, reports state that the investment in the blockchain ecosystem is less than 0.2% of the global funding. Some of the Indian startups using blockchain tech are Auxesis, Signzy, Elemential Labs, Unocoin, and Zebpay, among others. Recently, Walmart, in collaboration with IBM’s Food Trust Initiative and Sandhya Aqua, an Andhra Pradesh-based seafood processor company, started a pilot in India to enable blockchain tech in the Indian shrimp export to the US.
