Bengal is keen to explore emerging technologies such as metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to deliver public services.

Speaking at a session on emerging technologies in public services on the second day of Infocom, the flagship event of the ABP group, Debashis Sen, managing director, Hidco, said that start-ups could explore growth opportunities in this sector.

"The public service, i.e, the government in general has got a lot of opportunities for startups, for tech companies and a very large section of entrepreneurs in general," Sen said.

The government is monetising land in places such as Alipore, Nonadanga, EM Bypass and Behala and is seeking wide participation of bidders to get the best possible value for the land.

"Nobody will buy a piece of real estate unless they have seen it. Herein comes the importance of metaverse. This is an opportunity for start-ups and others to create metaverses around places where avatars of entrepreneurs can go in and see if it interests them," Sen said.

Sen said the use of NFTs was also being explored for land mutation.

"For land mutation for example in New Town, we are already commissioning a startup to see if we can associate each plot of land with an NFT," he said.

He said if every plot of land is associated with a token, the ownership of the land can be easily and quickly traceable along with associated records of the history of the land and whether there are any legal problems and court cases.

Besides being used as an irrefutable proof of ownership, NFTs could be utilised for the collection of stamp duty and mutation fees on transactions of the land.

"This is the future of land transactions everywhere. If we can get in this early, it is good. We are already trying. Let us see how far it goes," Sen said.

He also said that there are opportunities for start-ups in using data analytics and using data from different sources to optimise public service delivery.

"There are more opportunities for start-ups to do fantastic conjunctions to see that public welfare is maximised," he said.