WATCH: Why Japanese company Emurgo is setting up a Blockchain academy in India

From being a buzzword, Blockchain is set to become integral to businesses. The “time-stamped series of immutable record of data managed by a cluster of computers not owned by any single entity” may not have found mass acceptance, but biggies like Walmart, IBM, Infosys, and others are betting big on this technology.

And why not? The opportunity is huge. According to research firm Gartner, the market opportunity for Blockchain will exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, a 2015 World Economic Forum report predicts that 10 per cent of GDP will be stored on Blockchains or Blockchain-related technology by 2025.

Blockchain solutions are being put to use in sectors like government, utilities, healthcare, supply chain management, agriculture, payments, and more. But is the world Blockchain-ready?  

As the demand for talent grows, it is imperative that India focuses on fostering a Blockchain culture and trains the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs. And Emurgo, the Japanese Blockchain investment and edtech company, aims to do just that.

In this candid video interview with YourStory, Ellappan Venkatesan, CEO, Emurgo Academy India, tells us why Blockchain is here to stay, how the company wants to make India Blockchain-ready, and the upskilling course it offers.

“We want to upskill engineers with Blockchain. In India, the demand is only growing,” Venkatesan says.

The academy will pick 15 students for each batch and ready them for a career in Blockchain. The first batch will begin on June 1, and a subsequent batch will open up soon. The course covers the basics of Blockchain and will also cover technologies like Ethereum, HyperLedger, and Cardona. The fee for the 150-hour course is Rs 1.25 lakh.

“Our aim is to have industry-ready engineers in Blockchain,” says Venkatesan, adding that CXOs from 10 companies have been drafted in as teachers for the course. The course will blend physical and online formats, with teachers from Emurgo’s global teams also taking classes.

According to Markets and Markets, Blockchain will be a $23.3 billion industry by 2023 from the $1.1 billion market size it holds now. Toronto-based think-tank Blockchain Research Institute has said that the highest demand is from the US and India.

IT professionals across India are seeing the technology as the next wave of opportunity, and trying to reskill for it. Indeed’s Blockchain Jobs report for 2019 revealed that India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, will be the hub for crypto and Blockchain-related careers, followed by Pune, Hyderabad, and Noida.

Clearly, there’s plenty of scope for Emurgo with leading enterprises keen to explore the potential applications of Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

“Blockchain applications are already here and they are here to stay. Emurgo will also tie up with colleges and universities to promote Blockchain among students,” Venkatesan says.

Emurgo, which has academies in Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Japan, is also an investor in Blockchain-based businesses. It has not made any investments in India, but is looking at working with the startup ecosystem closely.

“The company will, in the future, add India as one of its R&D hubs,” Venkatesan says.

Also read: WATCH: Reskilling and upskilling cannot happen in a classroom, says Raghav Gupta of Coursera

Also read: The Blockchain divide: why large corporates are delinking it from the crypto world?