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Constant shift from magnetic strip banking cards to chip cards: ST

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Neha
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NOIDA, INDIA: STMicroelectronics is a well known name in the global semiconductor circles. It is also a major player in the Indian smart card segment.

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Here, Deepak Agarwal, senior manager, Techinical Marketing, Secure Micros, STMicroelectronics India, throws some light on the Smart Card technology in India in an interview with CIOL. Excerpts:

CIOL: India has seen exponential growth in Smart Card technology applications during recent years. What's your take on it?

Deepak Agarwal: An unprecedented growth in India's population has simultaneously augmented the use of various devices. This, in turn, has raised a lot of questions on security of data across the sectors. With various government e-initiatives and considering the welfare of citizens, have turned out to be the key factors that made smart card prominent in India.

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Also, according to the report issued by marketsandmarkets, growing mobile penetration, especially in India, has made it a spotlight for smart cards. By itself, this segment accounts for approximately 53.8 percent of the total revenue by the end of next year.

As of today, already, 35 million active smart cards are provided to BPL families under Government's social sector initiative like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). Other Government schemes available are the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and PDS (Public Distribution System). These are using smart card technology, which ensures the efficient implementation and benefit to below the line people.

In the financial sector, after a mandate from RBI, there will be a trend change from magnetic strip banking cards to chip card.

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CIOL: According to you, what are the other sectors where smart card application can be fruitful to Indian economy growth apart from DL and vehicle registration?

DA: Traditionally, the smart card concept was introduced in transportation segment in the form of DL. Now, it is not restricted to DL, and we see an emergence of new applications in banking, UIDs, telecommunications, financial, retail and health sector as well.

All of these segments are using the standard smart card form factor to provide embedded security into different type of devices, mobile phone, PC, printers and so on. The traffic police can also enter data related to traffic violation.

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Therefore, there are many areas where major programs are already in progress to upgrade existing solution to smartcard based solution.

CIOL: How will the adoption of smart card in the various sectors boost the Indian semiconductor market?

DA: A smart card contains a tamper resistant microcontroller chip and secure memory, having counter measures against various attacks. It is difficult to forge or copy and store data securely.

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India has an abundance of semiconductors manufacturers to support the local demand. Therefore, adoption of smart card technology will help to boost the overall semiconductor market in India.

CIOL: What are the key industry trends and drivers for multi-application smart cards?

DA: Smart card technology provides the flexibility to have various applications on a single card. One very such common application in other countries is to have banking and transport in a single smartcard. However, the key challenge is the collaboration between different bodies providing the services.

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CIOL: What else is STMicroelectronics offering in the smart card segment?

DA: ST brings the complete system-on-chip solutions, which include software, along with hardware. We offer complete solution for Near Field Communication (NFC) and related secure element (SE) for mobile phones/tablets, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for PC/laptop security, USB token for secure secured Internet banking transactions as part of e-commerce and Machine to machine (M2M) communication.

Our secure microcontrollers cover a complete range of interfaces for both contact and contactless communication, including ISO 7816, ISO 14443 Type A& B, NFC, USB, SPI and I²C

ST also provides secure-microcontroller platforms that rely on a highly-secure architecture combined with leading edge CPUs, such as ARM's SC300 and SC000, and advanced embedded non-volatile memory technologies.

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