Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Rwanda nears national smart card

Monday, December 7, 2009

After a month of negotiations, Rwanda’s Immigration and Emigration Directorate has reached an agreement with the police on what information to include in the country’s forthcoming national smart cards, according to The New Times.

Pascal Nyamurinda, coordinator of the National ID (NID) Project, announced that the two institutions have agreed to incorporate both the data of an individual’s driver’s license as well as travel document information on the new smart cards.


NID has contracted a UK-based company to begin the project later this week, with the first card expected to arrive in six months.

Only citizens who already possess electronic ID cards are eligible to receive the new smart cards, which will eventually support services like RAMA, banking and social security, according to Nyamurinda.

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After a nearly three-year delay, the Algerian government has finally launched its biometric passport program.

Magharebia reports that the biometric passports, which contain a contactless smart card chip that holds a digitized photo, fingerprints and signature, were supposed to be released in 2009. But the documents were delayed due to complexities with the operation of the project and the need to thoroughly research and analyze other countries’ experiences with biometric passports.

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Datacard Group announced a contract award from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) to upgrade to the Datacard MXD Card Delivery System and MXi Envelope Insertion System for enhanced card delivery and mailing for its driver licenses and identification cards.

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2012 is predicted to become a “tipping point” for RFID technology in the retail sector, according to a new study from the VICS Item-Level RFID Initiative (VILRI).

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Prisoners at Tihar prisons, located near New Delhi, India, will now be using smart cards instead of paper coupons for their food purchases.

As reported by The Economic Times, the former system of paper food coupons led to misuse and illegal activity within the jail. Some prisoners would use it for currency in order to get banned substances or buy favors from others.

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India is emerging as one of the world’s fastest growing smart card markets, according to a new research report by RNCOS. With more than one billion in population and increasing modern application areas, India is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15% during 2011-2014.

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Using smart phones for online banking and shopping has been promoted as the next big thing, but adoption has been slow, partly due to the fact that smart phones have security issues. Scientific American reports that this might change with the development of quantum cryptography.

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