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India's technology players are wooed by a multi-billion dollar business opportunity. This chance is meted out in the form of smart cards for a billion population.
Proposed by the Unique Identification Number Authority of India (UIDAI), the eco-system is needed to support the citizen ID card programme. It is estimated to be a huge programme consisting of chip designers, data collectors/managers, application and software providers, delivery channels, system integrators, networking analysts, smart card manufacturers and print companies.
Three years down the line, an approximation of at least 100,000 additional jobs would be generated in the country. An upcoming subsidiary industry to be built around this eco-system is also on the cards. The first phase of the ID card project is calculated to be around Rs 10,000 crore. It would be extending a Rs 6,500 crore business opportunity to the semi-urban, ultra-urban and urban population.
IT majors like Infosys and TCS have confirmed their active participation in bidding for the project. Government-based projects like Gujarat police, defence ministry, and e-passport have already been undertaken by TCS. A senior TCS official reiterated that they would be bidding for the open bidding process.
According to a senior Infosys Technologies official, the whole process is expected to be lucid enough. Evaluating the business, the bidding process as well as negotiating deals are incorporated into a whole. Since there would not be any violation of interest, they would be actively participating in the bidding.
Presently there are about 27 big e-governance projects valued at Rs 40,000 crore. Most of the tech-leaders, after the global crisis are involved in forcing the government for speeding up the aforesaid projects. This would help in stabilizing the economy of the country and producing jobs. The formulation of UIDAI is treated as a positive response to the requirement of the industry.
The president of Nasscom was delighted by the government's initiative. According to Som Mittal, UIDAI is a transformational project capable of changing many fundamental projects. It would hasten the skill level of India thus helping to reduce government costs. Nasscom urges the need to quicken up the IT process in the government. This would surely modernize and channelize the delivery mechanism to specified beneficiaries."
Semicon industries would be greatly benefitted by the smartcard projects according to Poornima Shenoy, the president of the India Semiconductor Association. She expects the ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) market to gain from this since the smart cards would be requiring proprietary chipsets.
According to the director of global sales in semicon company NXP, Ashok Chandak, the validity of the ID card would be from 10 to 20 years. Also the program operated contactless smart cards would offer much reduced cost of ownership to the government. But it would definitely prove valuable to citizens. The Times of India
June 26, 2009
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