This article is written by-
Vidya Sirsi,
CEO & President,
California Cards & Systems
and has been published in the Electronic Today Journal
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Smart Card Applications In The Indian Environment
During the conference in Delhi and then again at the SCAFI meeting on October
5th I noticed that everyone has been talking about the multi applications. There are several
combinations and permutations of this. Single issuer with multi applications, Multiple issuers
with single applications, Financial applications with some payment applications.
Any or all of these combinations are doable with today's technology. There are cards available
that support the downloading of the application to the card like JAVA, Multos or Proton. There
is encryption algorithm available to support the firewall. Multiple platforms, OS, chip set
everything is possible.
However to do this theoretically we need to take into consideration several other factors,
Human nature, organizational structure, constitution, and most of all where are we trying to
use the smart cards and what are the issues we are trying to solve.
Let us consider two sectors where we are looking at smart cards: Financial applications
and government based applications. In both of these cases there is no doubt that smart card
are best suited for Indian environment. Now the question is what type of card, how much inter
operability, can there be multiple applications supported on a single platform?
In financial sector, the major players are Banks, Master card and VISA. These organizations
are meant to serve the financial needs of the public. They can issue the smart cards and these
cards can be used in the POS terminals to do the payments of various products and services.
But in essence it is not a multi application. A Bank can issue a smart card in association
with either Master Card or VISA, but not both and tie this to the customer's bank account
at the best. Most of the POS terminals can handle up to 4 SAM cards and therefore can accept
Master Card or VISA. But can you really ask Banks to support the Drivers License or the
Insurance benefit card?
In financial sector, the major players are Banks, Master card and VISA. These organizations
are meant to serve the financial needs of the public. They can issue the smart cards and
these cards can be used in the POS terminals to do the payments of various products and
services. But in essence it is not a multi application. A Bank can issue a smart card in
association with either Master Card or VISA, but not both and tie this to the customer's
bank account at the best. Most of the POS terminals can handle up to 4 SAM cards and
therefore can accept Master Card or VISA. But can you really ask Banks to support the
Drivers License or the Insurance benefit card?
Microsoft and PC industry are constantly revising its services, releasing new versions,
provided that improvements are backward compatible. The Smart Card industry should adopt the
standards that are best suited for the services they want to provide (like EMV and ISO Standards).
Like the PC industry, the Smart Card industry should leave room for upgrades.
For the non financial applications, there are Drivers License, RC Books, Voter ID,
Micro Banking, Ration cards, Provident fund, just to name the few. Let us look at the reality.
Voter ID is issued by central government, where as Drivers License is issued by the state
government, Ration cards are issued by city. Can we really create an entity that would take
over all these responsibilities? Can a database with this amount of information be maintained
and be checked in real time? And most of all is it really necessary?
What I would like to strongly urge is let us not kill the smart card Industry even before
it has taken roots. Self interest, dispute about which standards to adopt, and inter
operability are delaying the deployment of applications.
Can we really do multi application even though it is government agency that is issuing the card?
Let us take Driver's License, can we put Voter ID, Ration card or even RC book on the same
card? Can we combine RC book with any payment? Can and should RTO do the banking functions,
or should the Banks take on the responsibility of collecting payments on behalf of RTO.
Today it is possible but not advisable to do multi application cards. For other reason the
cards that support the download of applications are expensive, the development of firewalls,
security and the systems itself become expensive. Sharing costs, responsibility will become
an issue.
There is a need to issue a central ID card that assigns each Indian Citizen a unique ID
Number. This job should be done by the Central Government. This ID number can be used by
different agencies for cross reference. BUT only as cross reference, and not as primary
database. The information gathered here can be used for statistical purpose. This job
should be done by a government agency.
Each state can issue the Drivers License. They create a database of their own with their
own ID. They can coordinate the cross reference with the central database.
The same is true with Ration cards. Today the head of the family is issued a ration book
for the entire family. The head of the family is a male. If you try to put this information
on his card with a driver's license, is he going to leave his card with his wife every time she
needs to buy ration? If each person has a card, is it expected from each family member to go and
get their own ration?
In conclusion, I believe that there are a few banking applications with need for multi
application cards. In the interest of India I firmly believe that most applications should
be single applications. This will save time, money and bring ease of execution.
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