[Reader-list] India needs to define smartcard standards- 174

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All

This story below seems to allude to what Jeebesh has mentioned few
weeks ago regarding 'taste'. That with an artificial need to have a
mass based ID card also comes a real fear of heterogeneous technology,
is all too apparent amongst the players who are based in India.

Now this is something to think about.

So what's its going to be, One nation, One citizen, One card, One
technology, One number, One fingerprint, One data base?

Will it also have One bank and One vendor network?

We certainly do have One Program, One Man, One mask, One objective and
One deadline now.

What happens to Nehru and his ideas about diversity?

Well....it seems that for some people it is not that important to know
where are we coming from as it is important to have an idea of where
we are moving towards...for me one is thing is as important as the
other...

Warm regards

Taha

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/India_needs_to_define_smartcard_standards_-nid-59871.html

India needs to define smartcard standards-
By    Benny Thomas
Tuesday,28 July 2009, 18:39 hrs

Bangalore: Soon India is expected to go the smartcard way and many
semiconductor companies are trying to grab the sea of opportunities in
this emerging segment. However, there is a concern that is shared by
these companies, "The standards in which the smartcards need to be
designed and manufactured are yet to be defined by the government,"
says Vivek Sharma, Vice President APAC - India Operations and Director
of India Design Centers, STMicroelectronics (ST). Delay in defining
the standards could hamper the entrepreneurs to avail the
opportunities available in this segment.


Gujarat was the first Indian state to introduce the smartcard license
system in 1999. Gujarat government has issued more than five million
smart card driving licenses. This card is basically a plastic card
having ISO/IEC 7810 certification and integrated circuit, capable of
storing and verifying information according to its programming. The
identity smartcards issued by the Spanish and Belgian governments to
its citizens contain two certificates: one for authentication and one
for signature.

There is a need for industry's participation to define the standards
for smartcards in India. "Most of the players in the industry would
like to participate with the government to define the standards," says
Sharma. The National ID cards in countries like Japan, Spain,
Thailand, Bahrain and Italy use ST's smart card chip. In Germany and
France, the health smart card also uses ST's chip technology. "We hope
to bring our global standards to India," adds Sharma. The company has
two Indian design centers in Noida and Bangalore, where more than
2,000 engineers work.

When dealing with the personal information of over a billion people,
the security aspect cannot be ignored to prevent the misuse of data.
Sharma says, "Security is a very important issue for smartcards."
Looking at the potential in India, Sharma is confident that all the
hardware and software required for the project can be developed within
the country. These can be customized as per the needs of the country,
providing the best security backup.

The demand for smartcards for Unique Identification Project (UID) of
the government is also likely to fuel the demand for chips for card
readers, terminals, biometric sensors, printers, personalization and
computer systems.