NXP Semiconductors expects good demand for its smart cards and identity chips on the back of the Indian government’s increasing usage of these products in its e-government, financial inclusion and transport programmes.

Ashok Chandak, senior director — global sales and marketing, NXP Semiconductors told Financial Chronicle that the firm, along with partners, is planning to bid or work on all smart card projects including identity cards for people in coastal areas, e-passports, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Nrega) and the unique identification database (UID) programmes.

NXP said that its secure microcontroller-based chip technology Mifare DesFire has been selected by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (Cris), an IT organisation under ministry of railways. The technology will power contactless smart cards for automatic fare collection using automatic ticket vending machines (A­TVMs) across various cities in India. These ATVMs will be rolled out in five cities—New Delhi, Sec­underabad, Kolkata, Bhub­anes­war and Pune in phase-I.

The project is expected to go live this September. The company is also providing products for metro rail projects in Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.

The firm, at present, is in the process of delivering ID cards for 70-80 lakh people, especially fishermen in coastal areas of India. Chandak said that the project, coming under the home ministry and Registrar General of India and project execution by BEL, ITI and ESIL, has started with data collection of individuals in parts of Gujarat, Andaman and Nicobar and West Bengal. He added that this project should be completely implemented by first half of 2010.

The firm, which was formerly part of Philips, is also working on the Nrega initiative and has been signed by 10 banks to provide its chip and biometric technology, Chandak said. He added that some of the projects such as UID are expected to take few months for clarity on implementation.