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With its large financial and digital inclusion projects, as well as ID card projects, India offers great opportunities for all smart card players
e-driving licence among others employ smart cards.
In India, where most of the cards used are magnetic ones, the concept of chip- based smart cards is new. Growing shift towards EMV is further promoting the adoption of smart cards. Also, the demand for mobile SIM cards has been growing at a double-digit rate in an emerging market like India.
All of these developments and the advent of innovative technological applications are likely to provide a further boost to the smart card industry.
Where do we stand now
Building a smart card application needs a combination of skills coming from semiconductor developers, operating system developers, smart card manufacturers, application developers, readers or terminals suppliers, and systems integrators.
There is a fairly complete ecosystem in India, except for silicon module manufacturing. The various players include chip suppliers, smart card manufacturers, system integrators, software application developers, technology standardisation and government agencies (which play a key role in rolling out the national-level projects).
The smart card market in India is expected to jump from the current base of about 4M million cards to 4MM million cards in the next few years. So both Indian as well as foreign smart card solution providers are showing keen interest in this market.
Some of the globally recognised card manufacturers who also dominate the Indian market are Schlumberger, Gemalto, GCa, Obethur, VCT and Orga. Among the major system integrators are Shonkh, Rolta, Smartchip, CMS, Siemens (SISI), CA Satyam and E-Cube.
Suppliers of the industry are essentially semiconductor manufacturHUV OLNH ,nfinHRn, ST0LFURHOHFWURnLFV, Atmel, Philips and Siemens Semiconductor, etc.
Chip suppliers and card manufacturers are technology drivers, while the market is driven by government projects. End-users seem to have limLWHG LnflXHnFH Ln GULYLng WKH nHHG IRU smart cards.
A majority of the smart cards and components (chipsets, SIM cards, readers, etc) are imported. Chipsets account for 4M-5M per cent of the total project cost, while card, OS and integration cost account for the balance. Smart card chips are mainly imported from China, the European Union, Taiwan