Policemen in Gujarat are a relieved lot these days—they need not now maintain records of traffic offences in their ledgers or keep track of offenders or false driving licences. The new licence cards being issued by the authorities give them all the information they need, at their fingertips, literally.
It's the same story in distant Kerala too. Instead of carrying tattered old ration cards to get their entitlements or get details entered into them, householders now have a card, which has all the information in it.
In Madhya Pradesh, automobile owners no longer bother about carrying their car registration and ownership papers with them everytime they go out on a drive. All their details are contained in the little card they carry in their wallets.
It's a smart revolution sweeping through a number of states across the country, fast changing people's lives and extending a helping hand to the authorities to provide better facilities to the masses. From personal details to health records, family particulars to fingerprint impressions, these new-age cards are enough to carry your entire history. And, for the authorities, these are convenient tools of functioning in a large number of areas.
A standard credit card-sized card with a microchip embedded in it, these can store up to 32,000 bytes of data, much more than the magnetic stripes on common credit cards, and carry information like the biometric data, including iris and retinal scans, face or hand geometry, DNA records and fingerprint scans, family details and medical reports, apart from the more obvious ones like name, age and the photograph. Pushpendra Mehta, senior consultant, Credit Card and Management Consultancy (CCMC), claims that these can "hold 128 times more data than an average credit card in a more secure manner."
These cards can also be programmed for a variety of other tasks—in the opium belts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, these cards have assumed special significance. The Central Bureau of Narcotics is issuing Opium Farmers' Cards—smart cards which store everything from the holder's family history to his crime record, production, marketing and income details. This, claim authorities, helps prevent illegal production, demand for which has skyrocketed following the crisis in Afghanistan, till now the world's biggest source of illegal opium.
The increasing popularity of smart cards has not missed the central government's eye which approved its use last year for important official functions. A special committee has also been set up under the chairmanship of the secretary, IT ministry, to explore the possibilities of using these cards to develop a "common delivery mechanism".
Says a committee member: "It can be an excellent government-citizen interface through which the delivery mechanism of a number of departments can be put together." The committee aims to integrate the work of eight to 10 departments through a single card. Its report is expected soon. Some of the possible uses under consideration include a citizen's ID, ration card, driver's licence, health record, social security, passport, pan card and election I-card. A pilot project is also being planned in Andhra Pradesh.
With over 40 projects in seven states where these cards are already in use, several more are expected to take shape by the end of this year. Says Sanjeev Shriya, MD, Smart Chip Limited, which provides smart card services: "The government is the biggest buyer of these cards. It has realised how useful it can be in today's context where people are gradually using on-line facilities for a variety of transactions. It can be the cheapest medium to provide functions from a pre-paid telephone card to a hi-tech digital smart key."
Gujarat started converting driver's licences in the state from January 1998. Till date, the state has issued over 20 lakh such cards which, apart from the holder's traffic offence database, also contains fingerprint scans and a brief health record, including blood type details. This is the world's first biometric-coded smart driver's licence. Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, the state government has already started issuing smart cards for driver's licences as well as automobile registration records, a paper document in India till now. According to reports, the state has 10 to 15 million driver's licences, which are being converted to smart cards. Goa has launched a unique system under which the smart card has a driver's licence on one side and a state social security card on the other. This card also includes all records of the holder, including employee's benefits and health records. In Kerala, ration cards are being converted to smart cards which contain details of a person's entire family members, his or her entitlements and offtake of supplies. In Jaipur, the government has introduced smart cards at the dairy level to maintain milk farmers' records. Once the government arrives at a decision, smart cards could be used as a national citizen card, the way it is used in China. In Singapore, the citizen's card also doubles as a passport.
Worldwide, smart cards are used in a number of applications with banks and financial institutions adding chips to their current magnetic stripe cards to add security and new services. Credit card companies have also joined in. According to reports, all card companies will switch over from magnetic stripes to chip-based cards by 2004. This is under way in many countries, and the conversion is expected to start in India next year.
This means your existing credit card will soon change to a chip-based smart card. Even your ATM cards will have to change. In fact, a single card would serve as a credit, debit and ATM card. American Express launched its chip-based Blue Card with an Internet security guarantee in 1999 to take a lead in this direction.
The largest user of smart cards is the telecommunications industry—there were over 250 million cards in use in mobile telephones as of January 2000. In the UK, over 112 million bank cards are being converted in a project to counter fraud.
But why change a magnetic stripe to a smart card? Says Achal Khanna, country manager, Polaroid India: "Smart cards are extremely useful in banking and operations where a lot of data needs to be accessed. This is where magnetic stripes fall short." Adds Shriya: "This card is more secure than magnetic stripes. Data in a chip can be effectively protected against external inspection or alteration. The best part is that penetrating one card's security does not compromise an entire card scheme." Smart cards are relatively tamper-proof, you can perform multiple functions from the same card and do not need on-line authentication as the data resides within the chip.
However, a major problem facing the revolution is the absence of a global standard for operation except for specific market sectors which have developed individual specifications like GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) and the main credit institutions in the EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) consortium. The only international standard is the ISO 7816 interface, which is accepted worldwide.
Another problem is the cost of conversion from magnetic stripes to smart cards. Says Mehta: "The cost of migration is very high. This will be the biggest stumbling block in India. The entire infrastructure has to change and that includes readers at member establishments and ATM technology." Agrees Khanna: "The government is planning to convert the election I-card into a smart card without having infrastructure to support it.This may lead to problems. Even the US had problems." They feel that apart from the official and personal data, there is not much use for such cards at present to justify the investment.
The government is, however, optimistic. Says the committee member: "With the increase in usage of smart cards, a number of third party application providers will emerge who would rent space within the cards to provide specialised services. Credit cards went through a similar phase. Now they are widespread." With significant programmes launched by the major infotech giants to interface with smart cards, many believe it won't be long before every PC ships with a smart card reader.
Whatever the cost, India will have to undergo this change to keep pace with the world since smart cards, like the credit cards, are fast becoming an accepted global standard. If the government remains serious about its intentions in this regard, the transition could be smoother and faster than one expects.