back to article India signals ban on cryptocurrencies, embraces blockchain

India has vowed to ban the use of cryptocurrencies within its borders, it appears. News of the clampdown was delivered by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his annual budget speech (PDF) delivered on Thursday. “The government does not consider crypto-currencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use …

  1. FozzyBear

    “Make In India” that encourages global companies to bring some of their manufacturing efforts to the nation. ®

    If their track record on IT being outsourced to them is anything to go by "No thanks"

    1. whiz

      India

      Well India buys lots of western goods and the west uses Indian IT services.

      If you put up barriers for IT flat trade, so will India and China.

      Airbus and Boeing have monopoly on Planes sold in India and China. suppose the 2 decide to stop outsourcing their own needs to the west. I wonder how long the export and quality focused economies will last.

      Lets be honest here. Everyone outsources.

      Indian IT is built on outsourcing and that is always the focus.

      about time to see the Macro picture

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: India

        Well India buys lots of western goods

        Actually it doesn't, in relative terms.

        Imports from Western countries are surprisingly modest. Of India's circa £750bn trade, the largest western element is the US at $22 odd billion, followed by Germany at $12bn - maybe $50bn of that $750bn is western manufactured or service imports (excluding some "curious" trade balances with Belgium and Switzerland, that look to me like the Indian rich squirreling their loot abroad, although jewellery and trinkets could be sizeable imports). The overall structure of Indian foreign trade is big trade deficits with oil producing nations, and a huge product based trade deficit with China, where China buys only $9bn of Indian exports, but sell over $60bn to India. Those accumulated trade deficits are partly funded by trade surpluses with UAE (I suspect construction services), and IT and BPO services sold to the US and UK, but overall India has a circa $150bn trade deficit.

        Most of that overall deficit is energy, but the overall economy and trade position is weak in large part because of all the trade barriers India puts up - if they made the country easier to trade with, then they'd probably have the counter-intuitive outcome of a reduced trade deficit, in much the same way that increasing top tax rates results in lower tax receipts.

        1. Raj

          Re: India

          Your response is all over the place, combining a few headline facts with a lot of garbage . ‘Construction services’ ? That’s not even merchandise trade . India separately breaks out merchandise and services trade figures . Look it up .

      2. vtcodger Silver badge

        Re: India

        "Airbus and Boeing have monopoly on Planes sold in India and China. suppose the 2 decide to stop outsourcing their own needs to the west."

        China clearly intends to build its own airliners. But it takes time -- roughly a decade from starting design to a finished product. Their medium range 160-190 passenger Comac C-919 was started in 2009 and is currently scheduled to be put into service in 2020 or so. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comac_C919

    2. iRadiate

      No its not 'anything to go by'. When the UK independently sends a probe to mars without crashing into it them you can feel all superior. Fuck it. Forget mars. How about the moon? India has beaten the UK to both using their 'make in india' stance.

  2. deevee

    such hypocrites, they sell their labour service cheap to foreign countries undercutting local workers who lose their jobs, under the guise of free trade and globalisation, but if you try and import anything INTO India, they slap an import tax on it.

    Time to whack a tax on outsourced labour from India, I think a 1000% tax on all services procured from India is a good start, and will help the government balance their budget, and promote growth of jobs in our own country.

    1. defiler

      Sales tax in India

      My brother looked at buying a motorbike in India, but anything over 180cc (I think) was hit by such staggering tax (import, registration, whatever else) that it nearly doubled in cost. Which is why everyone is on a 125 in India. Over here we look on 125s as toys...

      (Behold my snob-power!)

      But yes, importing into India can be a bit expensive...

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: Sales tax in India

        Similar in Thailand, one way they used to get round it was have all the parts shipped in and have someone build it there

      2. Raj

        Re: Sales tax in India

        There’s no such tax if the company manufactures them in India . That’s the whole purpose of setting up a tax structure than minimally impacts local production and increases duties by level of imported content . Its an extremely sensible and effective approach . It just bothers you because it impacts you .

    2. iRadiate

      Yeah you tell it how it is. Of course you forget that the UK might want to sell to a billion Indians while the indians might sell to 60 million brits. Wonder which country will bend over and allow itself to be butt fucked by the other.

    3. Raj

      Hypocrisy ? Labour is one of the three pillars of capitalism, along with goods and capital . The west particularly wants free movement of capital so it can invest its sizeable capital surpluses elsewhere , movement of goods to suit its own industry, but not movement of labour, since that’s too inconvenient for you right now. But oh, not 100-150 years ago, when indentured labour was absolutely a necessity . You should stop being a whiny little b***h.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Indian government is just cutting off all escape routes.

      "[...] when all options of pulling it out in hard cash (or gold) are eliminated?"

      I thought they had a cultural thing of families buying gold jewellery? That might be difficult to suppress in the short term.

  4. whiz

    Not exactly correct

    Your title is misleading.

    Indian govt hasn't banned Crypto-currencies.

    It has clamped down on illegal trading though. because they have no legal tender.

    So for now, individual users can still buy or sell.

    Banks though are making defensive moves by cutting off brides to wallets that enable buying and selling.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Horny_Manatee

    Kindly do the needful.

  6. RobertLongshaft

    INDIA BANS CRYPTOCURRENCIES

    But it didn't, did it? Fake news. Stick to posting Anti Trump nonsense.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I propose the death penalty for anybody making the claim "fake news".

      Firm but fair.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Anti Queen Henry VIII news would be better.

    3. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: "Stick to posting Anti Trump nonsense"

      Nothing anti-Trump is nonsense. Everything sensible is anti-Trump by definition.

      But I don't expect a card-carrying Republican to understand that.

  7. Evander

    This is a disappointing development in India, but not unexpected. Of course, nations will take Bitcoin's technology......then attack Bitcoin. This underscores a basic truth about governments. It's all about control. Not business ethics, not what's best for their people, and certainly not about freedom and prosperity for all. Lying about Bitcoin and mentioning "illicit use" without any proof says more about the Indian government than about Bitcoin.

    All this will do is push the best and brightest coders, developers and entrepreneurs to other nations and place to rebuild and grow. India can't stop Bitcoin, they can only hope to contain it or slow it down.

    They want you to use their Aadhaar, which requires full submission of you retina scans, facial recognition, fingerprints, etc. to use. In India, you will be tracked and processed, like a digital slave, to use their economy, from now on. Bitcoin doesn't require any of that, has superior privacy and open-source apps/tech, plus it increases in value every year, current dip not withstanding. It is up to the people if they are gonna bend over and take it. The coders, developers, business builders and 'hodlers' will not.

    India wants to force Indians to use their inferior, knock-off, state-run version of Bitcoin. They will use Bitcoin's technology to re-build their national economy. That is a bigger compliment to Bitcoin than any Bitcoin investment could ever be.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Tell me seriously, how much did you lose in the last 40 days.

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      FAIL

      I'm glad you see unicorn rainbows every day. Your life must be just filled with Care Bears. Good for you.

      Meanwhile, the continuous outrageous variations in BitCoin prices, the unending string of exchange scandals, and the fact that blockchain is not, contrary to popular opinion, security, not to mention the unacceptable transaction fees, mean that I will leave you to your "freedom" while I use a state currency that is actually reliable and secure.

      Each to his own, but please do not rope in Freedom to excuse your lack of objectivity.

    3. Raj

      So , how much did you lose in the last two months ? Bitcoin is just a modern day tulip mania . Its technology is far more useful . And that’s exactly what India is doing - keeping its citizens from blowing money on BS while investing in using the technology to suit its needs .

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But but blockchain

    I don't understand those who deem dazzled by blockchain yet disdain cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

    If a central authority is required or trusted to keep accounts, then blockchain serves no purpose because it is part of the solution that supports trustless accounting.

    I am bemused that governments are jumping onto the blockchain bandwagon. They are clearly trying to hijack a fad in order to blunt the effects of the rise of cryptocurrency usage. These moves are otherwise pointless.

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