Smart Cards: The ticket to smart governance

GN Bureau | July 3, 2012



REFLECT: The Technology RoundTable is an initiative by Governance Now to bring on board stakeholders in e-governance to discuss on a theme. Every fortnight, we invite experts, practitioners and service providers to jam on a topic which impacts e-governance in the country. Thus on April 13, a roundtable was organised in our office on “Smart Cards: the ticket to Smart Governance”.

At the high table were SK Sinha, senior technical director, national informatics centre (NIC); SK Chakrabarti, deputy director general, NPR; DL Narayana, general manager, NICSI; Dheeraj Jain, deputy director, office of registrar general and census commissioner; Deepak Gupta, deputy director, office of registrar general and census commissioner; Sanjeev Vij, director, Enterprise Solution Sales (e-Governance), HCL Infosystems; and Anurag Ashok, founder, e-Smart Systems Pvt Ltd. The roundtable was moderated by Samir Sachdeva.

Smart cards are becoming more and more popular, be it the driving licence, registration certificate for vehicles or Metro cards. These cards are obviously great facilitators for making the government-citizen interaction smooth, but their usage faces two challenges: vendor lock-in (that is, how to keep the card in business after the government department’s contract with a particular private service provider is over) and inter-operability (that is, how to make a single card useful for a variety of services). These issues have been addressed to an extent with the adoption of SCOSTA (Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application). The standards, made for a transport application, are generic, can be deployed for any kind of card, and are accepted internationally as well.

Access full video here

Comments

 

Other News

Monsoon session of parliament adjourns sine die

The Monsoon Session, 2026 of Parliament which commenced on July 20 was adjourned sine die on Thursday. The session provided 19 sittings spread over a period of 25 days.   During the session 11 Bills were introduced in Lok Sabha and 2 Bills were introduced in Rajya Sabha. 12 B

Consumer Justice at a Crossroads

Over the past four decades, India`s consumer protection landscape has undergone a remarkable transformation. What began with the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 as a simple mechanism to empower ordinary citizens has evolved into a comprehensive framework capable of addressing challenges ranging from mislea

Doctors, experts call for ban on junk food ads, mandate warning labels

More than 30 doctors, medical scientists and public health professionals have urged the government to take decisive action against the aggressive advertising and marketing of junk food, calling for a watershed ban on advertisements for foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) and ultra-processed foods (UPF

Asiatic Lion population rises from 523 in 2015 to 891 in 2025

On World Lion Day 2026, environment, forest and climate change Minister  Bhupender Yadav celebrated India’s remarkable journey in lion conservation and reaffirmed the country’s unwavering commitment to protecting wildlife and biodiversity.   In a post on soc

Railways imposed ₹5.13 crore fine for food quality and hygiene violations

Indian Railways serve about 58 crore meals every year on an average. About only 0.0008% food quality related complaints are received on average. Based on complaints during the last three years, appropriate penal actions have been taken by IRCTC. Such actions include imposition of fines amounting to ₹5.13

STHAVAR: Why every Indian built asset needs a permanent digital identity

India has built digital systems for identity, payments, taxation, documents, logistics and public services. State governments, ministries, infrastructure agencies and urban local bodies have also created portals for land records, building permissions, project monitoring, property taxation and municipal s

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter