[Reader-list] Govt scouting for e-passport component suppliers - 200

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All

Tills are about to start clinking. The business of I-cards,
e-passports and so on is now taking a serious turn. As the story below
indicates the search for component suppliers has begun. Huge amounts
of Public money is going to be re-distributed in favor of a small
vendor driven network for the sake of garnering information and
efficiency. NXP, TCS, HCL are gearing up for the big race to the
finish.

My Sincere apologies to all those people who think that this type of
mails mean flooding mail boxes with inanity, sincere regrets to all
those who think that  such mails may get buried in the debris of
reader-list and my sincere thanks to particularly all those of you who
have taken an effort to personally mail me, sometimes sporadically and
at times not so sporadically, in the past months and their expressing
shock, surprise and concern with the way in which Government of India
is carrying out a seemingly irresponsible exercise in a colossal
redistribution of public funds.

Warm regards

Taha

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/08/17/stories/2009081751410100.htm

Govt scouting for e-passport component suppliers

Adith Charlie
Sagar Bhadra

Mumbai, Aug. 16 The Union Government has kick-started the process of
scouting for suppliers of electronic components for another 20 million
e-passports, in a move that could bring fresh business for smart card
vendors, chip makers and IT firms.

This is part of the Government’s mandate to extend the e-passport
programme beyond diplomats and Government officials to the ‘aam aadmi’
starting September.

Over the next 24 months, the Security Printing & Minting Corporation
(SPMC) of India expects to procure 20 million electronic contacts-less
inlays along with its operating software for the production of
e-passports.

According to the tender document, the inlays have to be electronic
contact-less type according to SCOSTA-CL requirements. (SCOSTA is a
smart card operating system standard as developed by the National
Informatics Centre.)

The inlay is a laminate consisting of a core containing the RFID chip
and antenna, with outer layers of sheet material.

Each inlay that the Government is going to procure is expected to cost
between Rs 10 and Rs 60 depending on the sophistication required, says
Mr Sudhir Rao, Managing Director, Bartronics India, a leading
smartcard maker.

Based on the 20 million inlays required for the first batch, the SPMC
tender would be valued around Rs 60 crore, he said.

Apart from Bartronics, Germany-based Sagem Orga (through Smart Chip
India) and Amsterdam-based Gemalto are expected to bid for the
project.

Mr Alok Mukherjee, Director- Finance of Smart Chip India, is of the
view that the entire process of deployment of the inlays would begin
by next fiscal.

At present, a passport contains facial imprint, but an e-passport will
have all the personal details, including fingerprints, of the person
carrying it.

The pilot e-passport Programme was started on June 25 last year and
the first 10,000 passports were issued to diplomats and senior
Government officials.

However, the most important component in an e-passport is the RFID
chip, which contains the biometric data of the passport holder.

The Ministry of External Affairs is expected to come out with a
‘multi-million’ dollar tender for the same within the next one month,
Ministry sources told Business Line.

Chip makers NXP Semiconductors and Infineon (a Siemens company) are
expected to bid for this project.

“We have already made presentations to the Government authorities; our
chips are fully certified to work on the local SCOSTA standards. We
have deputed one architect level person from India who is working to
ensure that our chips are interoperable,” said Mr Neeraj Paliwal,
Vice-President, SoC Design, NXP.

He is of the view that the country could have around 200 million
e-passports in the next 3-5 years.

Experts believe that the IT infrastructure required for operating the
e-passport system – which includes electronically linking various
e-passport terminals – would be anywhere upwards of Rs 300 crore.

This would provide significant opportunities for firms such as Tata
Consultancy Services, HCL and Wipro.