INDIA COMPLETES DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY REGULATIONS

The government of India has already finalized as of early August 2017 the draft proposal recommending how to regulate the use of digital currencies in the country effectively.

The plan was already submitted by the intergovernmental panel that was formed in April 2017 for said purpose to the Indian Ministry of Finance.

The contents of the draft proposal are relatively unknown, but based on previous reports, some of the members of the panel favor the imposition of a stricter regulation against the use of the digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin in the country.

Others, meanwhile, have proposed that the Indian government should introduce some kind of a tax policy for the cryptocurrencies.
Positions of cryptocurrency players on the issue

Before the creation of the panel to study the existing framework for virtual currencies in India, startup companies involved with Bitcoin or the Blockchain technology have appealed to the government to adopt a more inclusive stance for the digital currencies.

They also urged the government to clarify the exact legal status of the technology and the virtual currencies in order to enlighten the majority of consumers who are still confused on the issue.
Other government efforts on the issue

Meanwhile, the Indian government has continued to advance initiatives to study the regulatory environment for Blockchain and the cryptocurrencies.

Among these programs is the creation of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) of a broad advisory committee that will conduct research on Blockchain and other technologies.

According to SEBI, the goal of the project is to determine whether the technology can be integrated into its own regulatory processes.

Part of the SEBI statement reads:

"[The committee will assess] technological solutions for regulatory functions of SEBI viz. information management and data mining, risk management including cyber security, intermediary supervision, consumer protection, etc. through application of new technological solutions like application of distributed ledger technology, big data, data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine Learning etc."