The government of Maharashtra, the third largest Indian state, is planning to launch five to six blockchain pilot projects in the state in collaboration with startups, The Economic Times reported.

A senior government official told the media giant that the projects would be in the areas of financial inclusion, land records, supply-chain financing, goods and farm insurance and motor vehicle registration.

"We are looking to work with startups to implement blockchain use cases. It will cut down manual processes and duplicate paperwork. It will save us cost, time and bring in transparency," said SVR Srinivas, the principal secretary at the state IT department.

"We can use blockchain technology in all the processes where one needs to go through past transactions. It will bring down redundant labour," Srinivas said. "The Maharashtra government will conduct a study to determine the quantum of investments. The savings will be much more than the investments."

Last month, reports suggested that the Maharashtra state government was seeking to tap blockchain technology for securing online data.

Andhra Pradesh is the first Indian state to launch blockchain pilot projects. In addition, Telangana, Karnataka, and Gujarat are also considering blockchain implementation.

More recently, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced the government’s intention of tapping into blockchain technology in its digitization efforts.