Improving Land Records in Karnataka through Blockchain
THE QUESTION
Can blockchain technology improve the land records system and service delivery, while unlocking greater investments?
LOCATION: India
SECTOR: Government
TECH: Blockchain
TIMELINE: December 2021 - December 2022
PIONEER: Sam Sherman, Lucy Gordon
PARTNER: PwC India
The Challenge
The Government of Karnataka, like most other States in India, follows a presumptive titling for property registration which poses substantial challenges to establishing accurate ownership of property. In this approach, the buyer is responsible for verifying the accuracy of land ownership. This challenger is compounded by the absence of a centralised and thorough land title registry. Instead, records are inconsistently maintained across government departments. These challenges have led to a high number of disputes and legal cases related to land ownership in India. Disputes related to state land acquisition have impacted nearly 7.7 million people, most of whom belong to vulnerable and economically weaker sections of society.
The Idea
The pilot will implement a blockchain-based land records system in Karnataka. The pilot team believes that this tech would create a single source of truth for land records in Karnataka and make it easier for those involved in property transactions to have access to a verified record of ownership, with an accessible history of ownership and any changes to records. Overall, it is expected that an improved system would streamline the ownership processes and reduce administrative burdens and improve service delivery, in turn unlocking greater investments.
Read more
Read more about takeaways from the pilot — “My three takeaways from a year working on Blockchain in India”