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 Gemplus - First International Company Certified for India’s SCOSTA National Driving License and Vehicle Registration Program
Singapore – 3 December 2003 – Gemplus, the world’s leading provider of smart card solutions has become the first international smart card manufacturer certified to meet India’s newly released national Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications (SCOSTA) specification.
The SCOSTA-compliant smart card is poised to be the globe’s largest smart card-based driving license and vehicle registration card rollout, backed by the hefty India market potential of 100 million driving license and vehicle registration cards.
Said Vijay Parthasarathy, Managing Director Gemplus India, “We’re very pleased to be the first international company to achieve certification for full SCOSTA compliance. It is a measure of our commitment and strong technical capability that Gemplus has delivered a SCOSTA-compliant card in just 12 months. The standard product development cycle is usually 18 months to two years. In fact, many other companies are still in the process of arriving at fully SCOST-compliant smart card for driving license and vehicle registration applications.”
The India Federal Government published the SCOSTA specification in 2002. Following the announcement, state governments across India must adhere to the SCOSTA standard when implementing their card-based driving licenses and vehicle registration to ensure interoperability.
Early industry reports indicate Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh and Nagaland have chosen two separate smart cards - for vehicle registration and driving license. Gujarat has called for fresh tender for driving license based on SCOSTA compliance. The reports also point that Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana have already called for tenders for driving license and vehicle registration.
Although primarily used as a driving’ license/vehicle registration card since it was first endorsed by the Ministry of Transport in India, the SCOSTA smart card operating system has capacity for multiple secure ID applications such as national identity and healthcare information purposes.
Gemplus has an impressive track record as a smart card solutions provider, assisting several governments with secure national ID programmes including the following:
- National ID cards: Sultanate of Oman, U.A.E.
- Immigration clearance and residency cards: Singapore, Philippines, Colombia, Mexico
- Welfare ID: South Africa, Brazil
- Healthcare ID: Slovenia, France, Germany
- Driver’s licenses & car registration: Argentina, El Salvador, Mexico
Gemplus is also an active participant in industry-level efforts to address physical and virtual security concerns including the Open Security Exchange and the European Commission-sponsored S-Travel (Secure-Travel)
program.
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A.(Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world’s leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source 2002: Gartner-Dataquest, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor.) It has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation.
Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable, personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives. These include Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Identity, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of other applications.
Gemplus' revenue in 2002 was 787 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
For further information, contact:
Vijay PARTHASARATHY
Tel: +91 80 528 8247
Email: vijay.parthasarathy@gemplus.com
Janet LOH
Tel: +65 6717 3333
Email: janet.loh-tk@gemplus.com
©2003 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus and the Gemplus logo are trademarks and
service marks of Gemplus and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks
and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property
of their respective owners.
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