The annual report from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has revealed that officials from various cybercrime and police departments received training in cryptocurrency forensics and investigations during the financial year 2022–2023.
The MHA highlighted that, under the Narcotics Control Bureau, India’s central law enforcement and intelligence agency, 141 officers underwent training on the investigation of darknet activities, cryptocurrencies, and other workshops related to digital footprints, gathering intelligence, and evidence from open source and social media, among other areas.
In addition to the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre provided training to more than 2,800 cyber police officials in cryptocurrency forensics and investigations, along with other emerging technologies such as anonymization networks and investigating the misuse of mobile applications in cyberspace.
This training initiative comes as India prepares to address potential crypto-related crimes in the face of growing cryptocurrency adoption. Simultaneously, the country is exploring mainstream use cases for blockchain technology. For instance, India’s state-run oil and gas company, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), has recently launched a blockchain system to facilitate the automated verification of purchase orders (POs).
HPCL collaborated with the blockchain software firm Zupple Labs to integrate blockchain-based digital credentialing technology into its purchase order system. This implementation streamlines the verification of HPCL POs to external parties by integrating blockchain with HPCL’s internal e-PO, resulting in tamper-evident, verifiable POs. This move showcases India’s increasing interest in harnessing the potential of blockchain technology for various applications beyond cryptocurrencies.