IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

In a statement, Allcard Philipines said contactless smart card technology has been in existence for two decades now and has been proven reliable in other countries.

“The danger is the possibility of our (present) system not being recognized by other countries which are using contactless card technology,” said Allcard marketing manager Franz Reyes.

The cost of a bank card with an electronic signature is expected to be 70 rubles higher than the cost of a standard bank card, Nashchyokin said.

Holders of the cards issued by the banks are expected to be able to pay taxes, fines, and make other payments, as well as to pay for government services available on the gosuslugi.ru Web site created under the e-government plan aimed at ensuring the availability of government services on the Internet, Nashchyokin said. The Russian government assigned Rostelecom as the sole contractor for the implementation of the e-government plan in August 2009.

The smart card - an electronic multi-purpose card meant to connect services including identification, access to insurance and banking services, super-markets, hospitals (e-Health) and medical insurance is likely to be operational in the course of this year.

Pascal Nyamulinda, the coordinator of the National ID project, told The New Times on Sunday that apart from the technical phase of the project, there was also a requisite legal framework.

Smart cards are electronic gadgets that will link different services provided by different institutions like banks, super-markets, hospitals (e-health) and medical insurances among others.

According to Pascal Nyamulinda, the coordinator of the National ID project which has the mandate to process the smart cards, the cards will integrate many services using its multi purpose chip.

Dr. Khaled Muhammad Al-Taweel, director of the National Data Center at the ministry, said the new electronic cards with high security features would prevent forgery. The new cards will have a luminous strip where information is stored.

Radio frequency is no longer just about large battery-powered radio-based gadgets like garage door openers and highway payment systems. Now ePassports and credit cards are going to come with RF capabilities. But is that a good idea? Is it safe?

The issuing and acquiring processing infrastructure for smart payment cards is making progress as key stakeholders position for expanding consumer smart card use, according to two Smart Card Alliance studies released today. More than 21 million smart payment cards will be in circulation by the first quarter of 2003, the studies predict.

The Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) announced on Sunday its plan to launch the electronic wallet for Smart Card users.

The wallet is part of many projects to be launched as part of Smart Card facilities, including allowing access to medical reports and history of cardholders through those cards.

Head of CIO, Dr Mohammed Ahmed Al Amer, said that the electronic wallet comes hand in hand with the e-government portal that encourages e-payments for many government fees and services. Al Amer said that the move is considered as a big step towards activation of e-government services. He pointed out that this service would keep people from carrying large amounts of money with them.

Launching a new Smart Card for all overseas Indian workers, he paid tribute to the efforts of the Gulf workforce and said the new card would aid more people to emigrate to the region.

The Indian Prime Minister's expert committee, headed by chairman C Rangarajan, has claimed that new biometric cards could replace the traditional ration cards to ensure grain is equally distributed among citizens.

"As an alternative to the existing public distribution system (PDS) we may switch over to the use of smart cards which simply means that the food subsidy may be directly transferred to the beneficiaries instead of to the owners of PDS stores," the committee said in its report, according to the Hindustan Times.

Smart Cards are already in use in some developed countries where nationals as well as residents use them, instead of passports, to come in and go out of the country. "The possibilities of using a Smart Card for different purposes are endless," said Haytham Abduljawad, programme executive manager of the e-government project in Qatar.

And, smart card shipments in 2019 will rise to 10.9 billion units, up from 8.8 billion in 2014. To put this in perspective, the number of smart cards shipped in 2019 alone will allow each of the world's 7.6 billion projected inhabitants to obtain 1.4 smart cards during the year. It is about equal to the combined populations of China, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil.

The current situation

Occupational health cards and mobile phones now play a role alongside stethoscopes in hospitals and medical practice. If use of health cards (1) still lags far behind that of credit cards and especially of mobile phone SIM/USIM cards, it is proving increasingly necessary in countries where the health system experiences major fraud and where the costs of conventional treatment of medical data are becoming difficult to manage. This is the case in all developed countries, and is already affecting some developing countries. According to the Smart Card Alliance, errors in patient identity have caused over 110,000 deaths in U.S. hospitals. Health services have reached a crucial turning point in their development, which some are comparing to the situation of the credit card 40 years ago! The smart card now appears to be the ideal solution for paperless processing of medical data while providing proven safeguards, which are imperative where the security and protection of personal data are concerned.

The employment of higher-value applications, in particular e-passports and smart national ID cards, alongside the increased focus on multi-application credentials, has accelerated the smart card market value. The market is expected to peak in 2014, before settling at a level close to $15 billion.