India’s compliance carbon market is moving from policy to practice. Following the April 2025 launch of the Carbon Credit Trading (CCT) Scheme, the country now enforces industry-specific greenhouse gas intensity targets. These standards require companies in sectors like power, steel, and cement to reduce emissions or purchase carbon credits.
The Government of Maharashtra is the first state to build digital infrastructure aligned with these national goals. Through a new partnership, the Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation Ltd. (MPBCDC) a government enterprise will work with The Hashgraph Group (THG) to launch India’s first State Carbon Bank on the Hedera Hashgraph network.
The initiative will allow carbon credits to be tokenized, verified, and traded through a secure, decentralized system. It creates a mechanism for both compliance and voluntary carbon credit markets, while opening access to rural and underserved carbon generators. Hedera’s DLT provides the technical foundation, and THG is leading the design and development of the bank’s blockchain architecture.
The Hashgraph Group: Building Hedera-Powered Public Infrastructure
The Hashgraph Group is a Swiss-based technology and venture building firm operating exclusively in the Hedera ecosystem. THG specializes in the development and delivery of decentralized enterprise applications that address regulatory, financial, and sustainability challenges.
Its global team includes certified Hedera developers, Web3 engineers, and ESG specialists. THG supports governments and enterprises across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia with tailored solutions built on Hedera. In India, the group operates through its local entity, Hashgraph Labs India Pvt. Ltd., with regional presence in Mumbai and Gujarat’s GIFT City.
THG designs carbon platforms that follow jurisdiction-specific regulatory requirements while maintaining interoperability with global markets. Its past projects include smart legal infrastructure for the Dubai International Financial Centre and sustainability tracking tools for large corporations.
This Carbon Bank project extends that expertise into India’s public infrastructure. THG is integrating compliance logic, carbon verification, credit issuance, and marketplace functionality into a single permissionless yet governable system. This enables state authorities and verified participants to access carbon finance securely and efficiently, with all data recorded immutably on Hedera.
The India carbon market is at its cusp and will explode in the coming years. I am delighted that THG and Hedera are part of this story as it unfolds; along with all our other ongoing and upcoming strategic initiatives in India, this will take Hedera a step further towards becoming the country’s preferred enterprise DLT.
Anindya Roychowdhury – Head of Global Partnerships at THG
MPBCDC: Aligning Climate and Social Equity Through Tokenization
The Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation Ltd. (MPBCDC) is a state-level institution jointly owned by the Government of Maharashtra (51%) and the Government of India (49%). Established in 1978, it operates under the Ministry of Social Justice and Special Assistance and plays a vital role in the economic development of marginalized communities across Maharashtra.
Through its financial inclusion programs, MPBCDC supports Scheduled Castes and Neo-Buddhist communities with access to credit, seed funding, and capacity building. Its flagship initiatives—the Margin Money Scheme and Direct Finance Scheme—have funded small businesses, agricultural ventures, and self-employment programs. MPBCDC has disbursed over ₹100,000 crore in financial support to more than 1 million beneficiaries across all 43 districts of Maharashtra.
The organization also leads energy and infrastructure initiatives through its wholly owned subsidiary, MAHAPREIT, which develops renewable energy and smart infrastructure projects. The launch of the State Carbon Bank expands MPBCDC’s role into digital climate infrastructure, linking social welfare with environmental compliance.
By enabling rural farmers and community cooperatives to tokenize carbon-saving practices such as organic farming, afforestation, and sustainable energy use, MPBCDC is creating a pathway for these communities to access carbon finance. The credits generated through this process will be verified, tokenized, and sold via the Hedera-powered Carbon Bank, allowing underserved groups to participate in India’s growing carbon market. This effort directly supports MPBCDC’s mission to merge economic empowerment with inclusive, climate-aligned development.
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Hedera’s Network: Built for ESG and Enterprise
The Hashgraph consensus algorithm gives Hedera strong performance at low environmental cost. Its structure allows thousands of transactions per second, near-instant settlement, and very low fees. This makes it suited for carbon markets, where transaction integrity and scalability matter.
Hedera is one of the only public distributed ledgers that maintains a carbon-negative footprint. This is possible due to its efficient architecture and carbon offset programs, which ensure that the energy cost of running the network remains lower than the emissions saved.
The network is governed by a decentralized council of over 30 organizations, including IBM, Google, Dell, Arrow Electronics, and Tata Communications. These members oversee software changes and treasury management, ensuring stability and trust at the enterprise level. This level of governance is rare among public DLTs and makes Hedera especially attractive to governments and regulated sectors.
Enabling a Regulated and Inclusive Carbon Economy
The Carbon Bank will support both compliance-driven and voluntary carbon markets. Companies that reduce emissions beyond their regulatory targets can issue carbon credits. These can be purchased by underperforming peers or traded through verified channels.
Maharashtra’s platform will also support small-scale contributors. Farmers and cooperatives using regenerative techniques will be able to verify their impact and tokenize it on Hedera. This creates a new, traceable income stream. The use of smart contracts and audit logs ensures that the credits are unique, compliant, and cannot be double-counted.
Aaryahub Technologies, an Indian ERP and integration firm, will support the platform’s enterprise architecture. The firm brings experience in building equity trading systems and SAP-based financial infrastructure. Together with THG, Aaryahub will ensure the platform meets the requirements of both state regulators and international credit buyers.
We are proud to serve as the technology backbone for this pioneering initiative by the state and The Hashgraph Group. At Aaryahub, we have the legacy of building equity trading platforms for India, and will leverage our expertise in SAP-ERP, blockchain, and digital integration to ensure that the State Carbon Bank platform is secure, scalable, and user-friendly. Our goal is to empower the marginalized communities and the Government of Maharashtra as a whole with cutting-edge tools for transparent and efficient carbon credit trading in line with global best practices, enabling inclusive climate action.
Hemant Kambli – Founder-CEO of Aaryahub Technologies Pvt. Ltd.,
Scaling Across India and Beyond
This State Carbon Bank could serve as a model for other Indian states. As India expands its regulated carbon market, similar platforms may emerge, eventually leading to a unified national carbon exchange. Hedera’s design allows these systems to interoperate while maintaining compliance at the state level.
Globally, the regulated carbon credit market exceeds $1 trillion. Credits generated by emerging markets often cost less but provide high environmental impact. This price differential creates opportunities for cross-border trading. With the Hedera-powered platform, carbon credits generated in Maharashtra can be verified and sold to buyers in Europe or Japan—giving Indian participants access to global ESG demand.
The Hashgraph Group Enables Digital Carbon Infrastructure in India
The creation of India’s first State Carbon Bank represents more than a policy milestone. It introduces a public digital infrastructure for emissions compliance, economic inclusion, and global climate engagement.
The Hashgraph Group is bringing international experience and technical depth into India’s growing carbon economy. Hedera’s energy-efficient and highly secure architecture ensures the platform can scale without compromising trust or compliance. MPBCDC is bridging climate innovation with its longstanding mission of social equity, positioning Maharashtra to lead in carbon finance as well as inclusive development.
Together, these partners are building a replicable framework for the tokenized carbon markets of the future.
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