HYDERABAD: Concluding his two-day trip for the India-Japan summit, PM Narendra Modi arrived in Delhi during the wee hours of Tuesday. On the second day of the summit, Modi had declared in one of his speeches that from digital partnership to cyberspace Japan and India were going to strengthen their partnership in every field.
The announcement was welcomed by several technology enthusiasts and analysts except those interested in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency watchers, who were closely following the deliberations of the two Asian countries were disappointed after discussions relating to the latest technology did not see any mention.
Japan is one of the largest markets to have a cryptocurrency framework with ATMs and exchange centres which could have been a resource for India.
“If the Indian government would have explored the cryptocurrency framework of Japan, it could have been of much use to blockchain technology growth in India.” said Prashanth Surana, co-founder, Snapper blockchain technology.
In this year’s financial budget, India declared cryptocurrency illegal. Many analysts see this move as a hindrance to the government’s Make In India program.
“I had to migrate my company to Singapore because I didn’t want to step into grey areas of the law. India is losing out research in this area. It is curbing the imagination of entrepreneurs”, said Prasannan, a blockchain angel investor.
“Cryptocurrency is no longer interesting people but blockchain technology. which is its backing, has a good demand in the city,” pointed out Sachin Yadav, a cryptocurrency analyst. The Japan summit could have been much more fruitful if the framework of cryptocurrency operation was included in the discussions, he added.