Chennai, June 15: The smart card market in India is poised to see a greater growth in volume and maturity in terms of technology upgrade in the next two years, according to a Frost and Sullivan study. "In 2001 the smart card unit shipments of the Indian market were approximately 3.7 million with a compound annual growth rate (CGAR) of 52.2 per cent", the study says adding that the unit shipment expected to reach 21.7 million units in 2005.
Currently the Indian smart card market is confined to five basic applications namely telecom, banking and retail, transportation, healthcare and government. There are other applications such as university and electronic access control systems (EACS) which are gaining acceptance in the country, the study says.
In banking and retail sector alone, the unit shipment of smart card is poised to increase from 16.5 per cent in 2001 to 43.7 in 2005, according to the study.
Smart cards were introduced way back in 1990 by companies which offered telephone cards, employee cards and ATM cards but their entry was too early for the Indian market leading to huge losses, the study points out.
"The real growth came in 1995 with the arrival of mobile phones in the country using SIM cards" says Gaurav Dua, industry analyst, IT-practice, Frost and Sullivan.
Bureau Report