Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi awards a young entrepreneur for her cryptocurrency price tracking application. On the other hand, the govt is still deliberating on the country’s crypto policies. Several media rush to the award recipient to find out more about her app. Meanwhile, the RBI is challenged in the SC regarding its crypto action.

Prime Minister of India Awards Creator of Crypto Price Tracking App

While the Indian government is rethinking on regulating cryptocurrencies, Prime Minister of India awards a young entrepreneur for her cryptocurrency tracking app. Shri Narendra Modi takes time to post a tweet on 24th January and share that he’s delighted to present the Bal Shakti Puraskar 2020 award to the very talented Harshita Arora. In addition, he wrote that Harshita has been focusing on a wide range of sectors. Her passion for science, technology, and human welfare are clearly visible.

The award recipient is an 18-year old Kumari Harshita Arora. He created an application called Crypto Price Tracker. The app is a portfolio management and price tracking tool for cryptocurrencies, which she designed herself. Interacting with the award winners, the PM says he’s proud to see the awareness of their duty towards society and the nation. There was a total of 49 winners of Bal Shakti Puraskar 2020 in various categories. But Arora receives the award for her excellence in innovation.

Nothing that he gets inspiration and energy from the award recipients, Modi quotes saying:

When I was getting introduced to you a while back, I was really surprised. The way you all have tried in different fields, the work you do at such a young age… is amazing.

Govt of India gives the Bal Shakti Puraskar award every year. It recognizes the exceptional achievements of children in various fields. It also recognizes the contribution of dedicated individuals and institutions whose tireless efforts complement the actions taken by the government of India for the welfare of children.

More About Arora’s Crypto Tracking App

In an exclusive interview with Miss Arora, she shares some details about her award-winning app. She told the media that she created the cryptocurrency portfolio management and price tracking application and launched it on the App Store in Jan 2018. It was later acquired by Redwood City Ventures.

The young entrepreneur comments:

My app received a lot of appreciation and positive feedback from the crypto community. It also got thousands of paid downloads in the first 24hrs of its release. Thus, it is now the #2 app in the Finance category of the App Store.

Crypto Price Tracker is a portfolio management app that does price tracking and customizable alerts. It tracks the prices of over 1,000 cryptocurrencies from over 18 exchanges in 32 fiat currencies. It also provides price charts for all monitored cryptocurrencies during the last one day, one week, one month, three months, and one year.

Users can create time-based alerts to get prices of a coin as a push notification regularly or at a specific time. They can also create price threshold-based alerts to get notifications when the price of a certain coin drops, rises or changes by a certain percentage. The app is available in the Apple App Store, but not in the U.S., however.

Is the Indian Government Changing Its Stance on Crypto?

An entrepreneur winning such a prestigious award from the Indian government for crypto-related work came as a surprise to many in the crypto community. Because lawmakers have been considering an anti-crypto bill. the interministerial committee (IMC) headed by former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg recommended a ban on all cryptocurrencies, except state-issued ones. Garg has since resigned but maintains a negative view on the future of cryptocurrencies.

“Now this is interesting,” Varun Sethi, the Blockchain Lawyer, tweets in response to the news of Arora receiving the award. He points out to “draft law by the interministerial committee imposes punishment for direct/indirect use of cryptos.”

Indeed the crypto bill drafted by the IMC states that “No person shall directly or indirectly use cryptocurrency in any manner,”. And provide cryptocurrency-related services to consumers or investors. Those in violation face a fine or imprisonment of not be less than one year which may extend up to 10 years. However, the bill hasn’t been introduced in parliament. And the Indian crypto community believes that it is flawed and will not be introduced as is.

Indian social media influencer “Shalini” commented, “India is in a love-hate relationship with cryptocurrency”. She shares:

While RBI fights against crypto in the SC, our PM just awarded Harshita Arora a prestigious award for innovation in various fields including crypto.

The Reserve Bank of India has repeatedly displayed its negative stance towards cryptocurrency. In April 2018, it issued a circular banning regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. The SC is currently hearing the petitions against the ban, which will resume next week.

What do you think about the Crypto Price Tracking App? Let us know in the comments section!