Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Indian government to install smart card ATMs in post offices for rural citizens

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Indian government is contemplating installing Gramtells (rural ATMs) at post offices in order to facilitate bringing economic development and technology to the masses. Gramtellers are rural ATM machines that operate by using smart cards and fingerprints in place of conventional personal identification numbers and magnetic cards.

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Hitachi partnered with Turkey-based banking company Isbank to bring biometric identification authentication to roughly 3,400 ATMs in Europe.

While the new network of biometric ATMs, which utilize Hitachi’s finger vein scanning technology, is the largest in Europe, it is far from the largest worldwide where Japan has embraced the technology and installed more than 75,000 finger vein-based ATMs.

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The Indian start-up ArrayShield Technologies has entered the two-factor authentication market in India and is looking for value-added resellers, managed service providers and system integrators to help it become a player in this field, which it estimates to be nearly Rs 2 billion.

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India’s government has called a truce in the ongoing argument between the Ministry of Home Affairs’s National Population Register (NPR) project and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), reports the Indian Express.

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Prisoners at Tihar prisons, located near New Delhi, India, will now be using smart cards instead of paper coupons for their food purchases.

As reported by The Economic Times, the former system of paper food coupons led to misuse and illegal activity within the jail. Some prisoners would use it for currency in order to get banned substances or buy favors from others.

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NXP Semiconductors has announced a partnership with Glodyne Technoserve, the technology service provider for the Indian State Government of Bihar, to provide contactless “e-Shakti” cards to citizens living in rural communities for access to banking and social welfare facilities.

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The government of India’s Planning Commission has announced that for electronic transfer of benefits to the rural poor, a unique identification number scheme is a more practical option than issuing smart cards, reports The Telegraph.

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