Blockchain as an Instrument for Land Ownership and Authorization of Services

Land disputes in India take on an average about 20 years to be resolved. To make matters worse, land-related disputes account for nearly two-thirds of all pending court cases in India. Disputes related to land ownership affect agriculture as land is used as collateral for obtaining loans by farmers. Such issues also affect development of new infrastructure due to nonavailability of encumbrance free land, demands for higher compensation by landowners, and filing of large number of arbitration cases by landowners. Land related disputes impact urbanisation too given the acute shortage for housing in the country. Last, but not the least generation of black money through benami transactions could be pre-empted and eliminated by digitisation of land records and their regular upgradation. While the problem is humongous, digitization is, perhaps, only the first step in the right direction. The solution needs to ensure that all existing land records are accurate and free of any encumbrances. It also needs to be more all-encompassing to address issues around land ownership, so far has not addressed. Blockchain due to its characteristics of trust and immutable ledger could be the potential solution to address this problem. The paper explains how Blockchain can help improve transparency, trust and efficiency of land ownership data.