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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (10157)	12/21/1999 2:13:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

RBI and IIT join hands for smart cards project In a unique venture, a consortium of infotech companies and banks have joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai, and the Reserve Bank of India to undertake a pilot project on multi-purpose electronic cash cards or smart cards. The RBI will announce electronic-purse standards for payment industry in India after the consortium submits its report on the pilot project in January, Ashok Malhotra, country business manager of Ascom India, a member of the consortium, told PTI. RBI officials could not be contacted for their comment on the project. The project, called Smars or smart rupee system, is sponsored by Indian and multinational IT vendors and support companies including Verifone, Aplab, Ascom, CMS, Schlumberger and Gemplus and banks like State Bank of India, Canara Bank and Citibank, he said. The consortium has completed the first phase of the pilot study and has already submitted its report to the RBI for its consideration, Malhotra said. Hyderabad-based Institute for Development and Research of Banking Technology, which helps RBI to assimilate technology, was also involved in the project. D V Pathak, dean of computer sciences at the institute, heads the pilot project, now being tested among closed-loop users in the Powai IIT campus, he said. "The present pilot study is only for pre-authorised debit but we eventually hope to extend to credit also," Malhotra said. Among consortium members, Schlumberger and Gemplus are smart card manufacturers, while Verifone, Aplab and Ascom manufacture terminals which read the cards. Verifone also provides back-end host for the terminals. The consortium has already spent about Rs 20-25 lakh on the pilot project. Malhotra said. Source : MI Dec 21, 1999