The inside of a “smart” story
Tunia Cherian George, Hindu Business Line, October 22, 2003

What’s up with smart cards and where is the industry headed? eWorld meets Atul Anand, President, Shonkh Technologies, for more on the scene and the projects that Shonkh has won for issue of smart card based driving licenses and vehicle registration papers in three states. Excerpts from the chat –

What are the applications that Smart cards can be put to?

The smart card is a plastic card with an IC chip capable of storing and processing data mounted on it. It is like a computer in your wallet. Smart cards have many applications, for example, in telecommunication (SIM Cards and payphone cards), banking, as an ID in a loyalty programme, in the transport segment for vehicle registration and driving licenses, in healthcare, insurance, e-governance, besides physical and logical access control. These are a just a few of the applications that smart cards are being used for across the world.

Depending upon the application and information storage capacity required, smart cards, besides having a microprocessor (in most cases) chip for secure information storage and processing, come with additional magnetic stripes, bar codes, optical stripes, holograms, etc, on a variety of card bodies.

At what stage of maturity is the smart card industry in India compared to that abroad?

The Smart cad industry is still in initial growth stage in India, with much of the usage being limited to the SIM card in mobiles phones and “the killer application” in the transport sector for the introduction of smart card-based driving licences and vehicle registration documents.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORT&H), with the National Informatics Centre, The Road Transport Commissioners of various State and SCAFI (Smart Card Forum of India), have Finalized the National Standard for Transport Applications, the Operating System called SCOSTA (Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications), and the technical specifications for use of smart cards in driving licenses and vehicle registration.

These guidelines set out minimum specification for smart cards, including SCOSTA-compliant microprocessor chip with a 4 Kbyte memory capacity. The states have been allowed the freedom to choose additional information storage technology as long as it does not conflict with the minimum specification

The National Standards for Transport Application also include KMS, card layouts, workflow, certification, handheld terminal application specifications, smart card and related hardware specifications.

What are the initiatives by governments to introduce smart card technology?

State Governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Rajasthan have come out with tenders for smart card-based driving licenses and vehicle registration documents.

While adhering to the minimum specification of 4 Kbyte SCOSTA compliant smart cards, some states have gone in for smart cards with optical strips. The optical strip provides additional information storage capacity of up 4 Mbyte, which could be used to store information about vehicle insurance, ownership records and the signature and chassis number image, which is not erasable.

For tamper-proof security, the optical strip on the smart card could also have a laser encoded vehicle number, readable with the naked eye. These additional features should be welcome as they supplement the information on the microprocessor chip of the smart card, providing added security, both to the Government and the vehicle owner.

How will the transportation industry benefit from using these cards?

The introduction of smart cards is expected to bring down the incidence of car theft. Car owners, have so far, been unable to do anything about the theft of their vehicles, as registration certificate (RC) books are easily manipulated. However, Smart card based registration certification will eliminate the possibility of manipulation. Thus, the transfer of ownership of stolen vehicles at the RTO (regional transport office) will become that much more difficult. The chassis or the car number is key to accessing the entire history of a vehicle’s owners. Such information is stored in both the smart card as well as the server to which it is connected.

Under, the smart card project, the district offices of the RTO will be connected to the Transport Commissioner’s office and data will be periodically updated to the central server located in the transport Commissioner’s office.

What is the value of the contracts that Shonkh has on hand currently?

Shonkh Technologies has bagged contracts for issuance of smart card-based vehicle registration certificates and driving licenses in Maharashtra and Gujarat, on a Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT) basis, and in Delhi on a Build, Own, Operate (BOO) basis. It is providing the IT solutions for issuance of these smart card-based documents.

In, Maharashtra, the company will execute a Rs.350-crore order for the issuance of 10 million cards over 15 years. In Gujarat, Shonkh has won a Rs. 180-crore order for the issue of six million cards, of which 1.75 lakh cards have already been issued. In Delhi, we are implementing a Rs. 148-crore contract for issuance of 40 lakh optical smart card-based electronic registration books. The Government does not invest any money. We see e-governance in the transport sector as a potential growth segment. Smart card-based vehicle registration and driving license certificates are bound to become popular and we expect that it will be adopted in many other States. A number of state governments are issuing tenders for computerization of the entire transport department, including connectivity and setting up of central database servers.

Who are your technology partners? What technology do you use in your smart card projects?

Our technology partners for the projects in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi are Gemplus and Axalto (a Schlumberger company) for the smart card and Lasercard Systems Corporation for the optical strip. CA Satyam ASP Pvt. Ltd. is the implementation partner for the company’s projects in Gujarat and Maharashtra, while Virgo Softech Ltd. is the implementation partner in Delhi.

A common technology platform has been recommended to ensure interoperability between the various state transport departments. Both the smart card operating systems – SCOSTA (Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications) and the backend software – Vahan for Vehicle registration and Sarathi for driving licenses have been developed by NIC.

Do you issue smart cards that have multiple applications?

Most smart cards are capable of hosting multiple applications. The driving factor is the operating system and the additional software loaded on the chip for specific applications.

How old is smart card technology what are the new trends and developments in this sector?

Smart card technology is over two decades old. With the basic technology invented in the 1970’s, Axalto (a Schlumberger company) delivered the world’s first commercial application of smart cards in 1980. These were pre-paid memory smart cards and smart card pay phones.

The prime mover for smart card usage was to curb fraud, and technology has effectively contributed to this end. After public telephony, the banking industry followed the usage of smart card technology, which incorporated micro-processor based smart card technology. The early 1990s again saw the telecom industry adopting smart cards in a big way and this time GSM was globally standardized on smart cards as SIM cards.

Smart Card technology is now being employed in “identification” and “health” monitoring systems.

The mid-1990s saw the advent of Open Platform cards. The Java cards invented in 1996 gave a boost for multi-application cards. Technology and market requirements later adopted usage of complex cryptography in smart cards marketing them a favourite user media to store, carry and transact with digital signatures.

Applications based on contact-less technology and the invention of combi-cards (contact + contact-less) in 1996-97 opened up a whole new segment in smart technology. The invention of .NET technology in 2002 saw the memory capacity of smart cards growing further. Today, 512 Kbyte cards have been introduced in market.

With the increasing need for security, smart cards are being viewed as the ideal medium for implementing national ID/citizen ID cards globally. Identification and e-governance are seen as the largest consumers of smart card technology in the near future. In the transport sector, smart card-based driving licenses, vehicle registration, mass transit and toll application are expected to form yet another large segment of smart card usage.

Banking is also a big user, thanks to the guidelines issued for implementation of EMV schemes by card issuers. January 2005 has been mandated as the date for liability shift globally and most countries have drawn up plans for implementation.

GSM SIM cards and wireless telephony applications are also expected to receive a boost as wireless technologies gain momentum.

How have vehicle-owners responded to the Government notification requiring them to replace their paper-based registration and driving licenses with smart card-based documents?

While private vehicle owners have not showed any hesitation in accepting smart card technology for driving licenses and registration documents, commercial vehicle owners have also responded positively to the smart card initiative, after the initial hesitation.

Who are Shonkh’s competitors in smart card business?

There are quite a few names including Aravali Associates, Shyam Telecom, Compucom, Explora, C.M.S. Computers, I.T.I. Ltd., Smart Chip, ROLTA, Genus, Score Information Technologies, H.C.L., A.K.S. Smart Cards and UTL.