[Reader-list] Multibillion dollar opportunity for IT cos

[Taha Mehmood]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India-Business/Multibillion-dollar-opportunity-for-IT-cos/articleshow/4703693.cms

Multibillion dollar opportunity for IT cos
26 Jun 2009, 0152 hrs IST, Mini Joseph Tejaswi & Shivani Mody, TNN


BANGALORE: A billion smart cards for a billion population. It throws
up a multi-billion dollar business opportunity for domestic technology
players.

The eco-system required to support the citizen ID card programme,
proposed by the Unique Identification Number Authority of India
(UIDAI), is expected to be vast comprising of data
collectors/managers, delivery channels, chip designers, smart card
manufacturers, application and software providers, system integrators,
networking analysts and print companies.

Some estimate it will create at least a 100,000 additional jobs in the
country in the next three years. An ancillary industry will also come
up around this eco-system.

The entire ID card project is estimated to be in the range of around
Rs 10,000 crore, with the first phase which will cover ultra urban,
urban, and semi-urban populations offering a Rs 6,500 crore business
opportunity.

Companies like TCS and Infosys have confirmed that they will actively
bid for the project. TCS has already been working with the government
on projects like e-passport, Gujarat police and the defence ministry.

"Since it is going to be an open bidding process, we will be bidding
for it,'' said a senior official at TCS.

"The entire process including the bidding process, deal negotiations
and business evaluation, are expected to be transparent. There will
not be any conflict of interest for us and therefore we will
participate in the bid,'' said a senior official at Infosys
Technologies.

Some 27 large e-governance projects worth Rs 40,000 crore are
currently in the pipeline. After having been badly hit by the global
meltdown, many tech leaders have been urging the government to
accelerate these projects to induce economic buoyancy and create fresh
jobs. The UIDAI comes as a quick response to the industry's call.

Som Mittal, president of IT industry body Nasscom, was clearly
delighted by the government's move: "The project is a transformational
project for the country as it will overlay many underlying projects,
creating huge efficiencies for the country leading to enhanced
governance and reduced costs. Nasscom has been advocating the need to
accelerate IT adoption in the government and this initiative will
overhaul and direct the delivery mechanism for public goods and
services to intended beneficiaries."

Poornima Shenoy, president of the India Semiconductor Association,
said smartcard projects will have a major impact on the semicon
industry. "As all the government initiatives on smart cards shall
require proprietary chipsets, the ASICs (application specific
integrated circuit) market is expected to benefit from these
applications," she said.

Ashok Chandak, director of global sales in semicon company NXP, said
that the programme implemented on the contactless smart cards will
offer lower cost of ownership to the government and real value to
citizens. The ID card could have a life of 10-20 years.

(With inputs from Reeba Zachariah)