GS1 India, a supply chain standards organization, has opened its software development lab in Chennai’s Olympia Tech Park. The lab will serve as a Centre of Excellence, focusing on understanding customer requirements and developing solutions that will support digitization or various industries. 

The lab’s primary objective is to develop innovative technology solutions in key areas such as product Master Data Management (MDM) and traceability services. Traceability is becoming one of the key regulatory and business requirements across various industry sectors and is essential to ensure consumer/patient safety. MDM systems are the building blocks for ensuring data quality through their consistency, completeness, and accuracy.

This initiative will establish a solid foundation for the development of future blockchain-based products. It is expected that especially small and medium manufacturers across industry sectors will be able to adopt traceability platforms through blockchain technologies and be competitive in the value chain. 

S. Swaminathan, CEO of GS1 India, stated, “This initiative empowers us to leverage blockchain technology and contribute to the digital transformation of the Indian industry. By collaborating with local talent and industry partners, we are confident that our lab will drive cutting-edge research and development, ultimately delivering solutions that address critical industry challenges and benefit all stakeholders, keeping the MSME sector in mind.”  

GS1 India is set up by the Ministry of Commerce, Govt of India along with BIS, APEDA, IIP, Spices Board, and trade bodies including CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, FIEO, and IMC. It is affiliated with GS1 Global, based in Brussels, Belgium, and 115 other member organizations.

More than three million companies worldwide use GS1 standards. GS1 standards form the foundation for building applications for traceability, product authentication, and recall, amongst others.