An Indian State Is Building a Massive, Blockchain-Based DNA Database

India ’s eighth largest land is seeking to build a blockchain - based DNA database of all 50 million of its citizens .

The administration of Andhra Pradesh , or AP , announced a partnership to build the database with the German genomics and preciseness medicine company Shivomlate last month . As with other recent effort in places such as Dubai andEstonia , the government hopes to use the database to improve medical treatment , aid prevent disease by spotting a someone ’s risk for it early on , Quartz account . This could be especially important given thatSouth Asian communitiesare generally underrepresented in DNA databases , and thing like disease riskare often derivation - specific . A want of genetic info about South Asiatic people mean a deficiency of research that could wind up say , identifying a person ’s risk for malignant neoplastic disease or even leading to cure for transmitted disease .

But the announcement also comes at a time when India ’s massive , countrywide biometric data point aggregation program is under scrutiny . shew at the turn of the decade , theAadhaarprogram hop to use biometric data much like America uses social security measures numbers , help the government keep track of rural and pitiful population that often turn tail government card and ensuring better delivery of services and subsidies . So far , over a billion Indians have enrolled , but concerns about the security of that data and the way of life in which it could be exploited are wax . OneIndian newsprint reporterfound the biometric data could be grease one’s palms for a paltry sum over WhatsApp . Others are concerned the database is usedto monitorall aspect of Indians ’ lives .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

And in AP , efforts to ramp up a desoxyribonucleic acid databasebegan in 2016as a wayto racetrack yardbird . Many countries , including the US , keep database of deoxyribonucleic acid taken from catch people . In China , though , efforts to build such a database have pull criticisms that the task violates privacy , below the belt target vulnerable citizen , and is unclear about how the data will ultimately be used .

In AP , joining the database will be optional , and investigator and governments will be leave to buy or access anonymous raw genomic data point stored on the blockchain in the cloud . With India ’s Aadhaar program already under scrutiny , the new AP DNA database could very well confront similar pushback .

[ Quartz ]

William Duplessie