MUMBAI, India -- India appears to be making a major move toward the implementation of chip-based smart cards, according to a report in the Financial Express.
The country will roll out smart cards for credit and debit applications, based on MasterCard's and Visa's mandates for chip, with banks expected to issue smart cards by 2006.
Several banks are already deploying chip-enabled ATMs and point-of-sale terminals, according to the Financial Express.
According to the report, all new driver's licenses issued after January 2004 will be in the form of smart cards. Seven states, including Maharashtra and Haryana, have mandated the issue of smart card licenses. The licenses will have the capability to store a range of data, including an individual's photograph, signature and finger prints.
The Reserve Bank of India will soon commence a pilot of multiple application smart cards in a bid to finalize standard procedures for their usage in the country.
India currently has five million smart card users according to the Financial Express, but the number may reach 14.7 million by the end of 2004.
Santanu Mukherjee, Visa International's country manager for South Asia, said, "The payment infrastructure in India is still at a nascent stage and fortunately with early interest in chip migration, India will be at relative advantage to other countries in the region, which have to bear significant cost of replacing their magnetic stripe terminals with that of EMV chip-enabled ones."
Globally, there are 52 million Visa EMV chip cards and 600,000 EMV POS terminals. By the end of 2003, Visa expects there will be 110 million Visa EMV chip cards and 2.4 million EMV POS terminals.
India's move toward chip comes at the same time as a major increase in the country's number of ATMs. According to a Times of India report, India now has 10,000 ATMs, including machines in smaller cities like Patna and Baroda. According to the Times report, 600 towns in India have at least one ATM.
