French expertise in smartcards to be showcased

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE in India, in association with key French partners and Indian stakeholders, will be organising for the 4th consecutive year- a French Pavilion at SmartCards Expo 2014, held from the 15th to the 17th of October in New Delhi.

The French Pavilion will bring together leading companies from the French AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) and Secure Technologies industries to showcase their technologies and solutions and evaluate business opportunities in the Indian market during SmartCards Expo 2014, the leading event in India on technologies, solutions and services related to smartcards, biometrics etc.

Around 800 French companies operate in the field of digital trust with around 100 solution editors, 100 equipment manufacturers and around 600 services companies. Among those, the biggest of those enterprises are worldwide leaders in chips and smartcards, ID management and biometrics, eGovernance, home security and payments; with SMEs pioneering in core technologies and niche markets.

This sector also differentiates itself by its very high level of technology, with an average of 15 percent of revenues on digital trust re-invested in R&D by French enterprises (with even higher figures among equipment manufacturers and solution editors).

At the same time, India appears as a front-runner in terms of adoption of digital trust technologies especially in the field of AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) through the implementation of strategic national projects making use of identification and secure technologies (Aadhaar, RSBY, MGNREGA, e-Driving licenses...) and the development of very innovative projects and concepts to tackle for instance financial inclusion (PMJDY) and promotion of non-cash payment modes (Rupay Card).

A large number of initiatives have been undertaken by various State Governments and Central Ministries to usher in an era of eGovernance. In order to promote eGovernance in a holistic manner, various policy initiatives and projects have been undertaken to develop core and support infrastructure.

As such, the AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) market in India has, for instance, grown from $581 million in 2010 to close to $1 billion in 2012 and nearly $1.3 billion in 2014 at a CAGR of 22.37 percent according to Frost & Sullivan.

Of the AIDC technologies, smartcards take the lions’ share with 2010 revenues pegged at $510 million and reaching $903 million in 2014, but biometrics and RFID/NFC are being expected to capture a larger share of the AIDC market in the near future.