Raj Kapoor: Leading Sustainable and Social Impact Blockchain Projects
Ladderworks is a publishing platform of diverse picture books and online curriculum with the mission to empower over a million kids to become social entrepreneurs. Our current series features interviews by our interplanetary journalist Spiffy with inspiring Social Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Builders, and Changemakers who are advancing the UN SDGs.
Welcome back! Spiffy here, your interplanetary journalist reporting from Planet Earth with an eye on entrepreneurs working to make this world more equitable. Today I’m super excited to speak with Raj Kapoor, founder of the India Blockchain Alliance.
Spiffy: It’s wonderful to meet you, Raj. I’m curious about the challenges India Blockchain Alliance is addressing. What can you tell me?
Raj: Thanks for having me, Spiffy. We operate closely in urban environments and sectors, that, face challenges. We leverage technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to find solutions addressing urbanization and infrastructure, mitigate or predict natural disasters, and address resilient digital infrastructure to protect communities and minimize the impact of disasters. We ideate solutions and encourage environmentally friendly practices and technologies to mitigate their environmental impact around environmental degradation and pollution and promote sustainable consumption and production. By engaging communities in decision-making processes and involving them in the planning and implementation of urban development, we work on real-world problems and not rhetoric.
Spiffy: What motivates you to do it?
Raj: We lived a good life, but over the years I have seen a flagrant violation of almost every aspect that we hold close to our soul. Understanding that technology is a great enabler, I plunged into working on our mission of "Tech For Good," as I desire to create a better future for myself and future generations. I am driven by an insane passion and a sense of responsibility to protect the environment, improve the quality of life in cities, ensure social equity, and address pressing global challenges such as climate change and resource depletion. I strive to not just be an armchair advisor but to actually walk the talk!
Spiffy: What would you say is the impact of your work?
Raj: I would like to answer this with a recent challenge we faced and how we mitigated it. When one of our clients launched a program to convert waste plastic into new materials, they encountered a serious difficulty. Local collectors would make promises but fail to either come or simply procrastinate. We set up an AI and blockchain-enabled platform so the client could now obtain a real-time, digitized view of the actual volume of waste plastic being collected thanks to its partnership with us. This equated to a considerably more precise and predictable supply chain, which is critical to the productivity of their business. Earning carbon offsets was a natural benefit as well.
Spiffy: That’s great! Tell me about a recent milestone/initiative by you or your org. What impact does that make?
Raj: We built a unified platform leveraging blockchain, IoT, and data analytics to decipher and manage the complicated regulatory and compliance frameworks that govern sustainability and green finance, based on internationally-approved carbon footprint computation methodologies and data-collecting standards on a trusted blockchain architecture. We leveraged existing and new data to obtain new insights on carbon footprint and adopted data-measurable methods to minimize emissions, which cut fuel and energy expenses for organizations and provided data and reports compliant with the financial sector criteria so that access to sustainability-linked loans, investments, and insurance became hassle-free.
Spiffy: Is there anything else you would love to tell our audience?
Raj: We believe in opportunities to pause, reflect, check, and ensure spending is aligned with its intended purpose. So we did this by providing a platform providing greater coverage and deeper, more transparent, and granular data than any other sustainable digital platform. Environmental concerns are just one aspect of sustainability. Any effect must extend across the earth and touch the lives of its inhabitants. Also, with the correct governance frameworks in place and the capacity to monitor success against those frameworks, those individuals strive towards a more sustainable future in a clearer and more structured way. Our "Green Chain Protocol" is the realization of our journey, though not the destination.
Spiffy: Thanks for speaking with me today, Raj—it’s been an honor!
Raj Kapoor is the founder of the India Blockchain Alliance and the chairman of the Global Alliance For Ethical AI Innovation. He is also an advisory board member at over 60 Web3 companies globally. A G20 and TEDx speaker, Raj is now working with his team on India's own indigenous blockchain. He is also working on several sustainable and social impact blockchain projects in the world, which are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. (First published on the Ladderworks website on March 19, 2024.)
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect those of Ladderworks LLC.
© 2024 Ladderworks LLC. Edited by Sujit Kunte. Spiffy’s illustration by Shreyas Navare. For the Ladderworks digital curriculum to help K-3 kids advance the UN SDGs, visit Spiffy's Launchpad: Creative Entrepreneurship Workshops for K-3 Kids and their caregivers here.