The recent craze for NFTs has spread around the world and it's now arrived in India. Interestingly enough, the group behind this splash isn't a blockchain-related start up, nor is it a celebrity or popular brand. It’s instead India’s very own government.
That’s right, Indian Railways, which transports 2 crore people every single day, has launched its special ticket, which is based on NFT technology.
India's famous Holi festival is being celebrated on March 25th, and Indian Railways is issuing premium train Tejas Express NFT tickets between the Delhi to Lucknow train route. Passengers can buy this ticket from March 20th to April 2nd.
Indian Railways has been promoting and taking help from blockchain technology for some time now. Just last year, the National Academy of Indian Railways collaborated with Polygon to organize a workshop in which the benefits of blockchain technology in the railway sector, as well as the Indian Railways' digital platform, IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation), introduced a special NFT for the Hindu holy site Ayodhya. Overall, it seems Indian Railways is very optimistic on blockchain and NFTs.
That’s yet to be seen. While some brands are recently abandoning their NFT strategies and many still criticize NFTs as a whole, it’s positive to see industries such as transportation utilizing NFT technology in a meaningful way. A global dominant country like India promoting it certainly benefits the industry as a whole. We’ll see where this experiment with NFT tickets results in the near future.
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