Global chip maker Intel has identified various government initiatives such as financial inclusion and increasing the broadband penetration as areas of growth for the company in India. The company is also pinning its hope on the Unique Identification (UID) programme which proposes the introduction of micro ATMs which required biometric related identifications chip sets and platforms.
S Natarajan, Country Business Manager-Embedded markets, Intel said the company was expecting huge adoption of biometric devices as part of the Aadhaar programme. The company is hoping to work with the device makers to sell its platforms and chip sets for biometric authentication.
“UIDAI is a big opportunity for us as they are planning to use micro ATM concept for payments for workers under the national rural employment guarantee scheme. Today the UIDAI is in the enrollment stage, but when they start authentication based on the biometrics devices, it gives us an opportunity,” said Natarajan. He also said that, the company will partner with device manufacturers in India and provide them Intel technology and solution to develop biometric devices.
Intel recently had also done a pilot project with UIDAI for authentication based on the device developed using Intel technology.
According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, the Indian biometric market earned revenues of Rs 543 crore from the combined sale of biometric readers and cards in 2009. It is estimated this to reach Rs 5255 crore in 2015.
“Many of the projects which the government is planning demand huge amount of surveillance, intelligence, speed, security, storage and smart computing,” he said.
The company also said it is seeing huge opportunity in the national broadband roll-out plan of the government. Intel which had acquired Fulcrum Microsystems, a company that designs ethernet switch silicon for data center network, hopes this acquisition will help it in various broadband projects. The government of India recently announced its plan of setting up a National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) to provide broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh village panchayats.
“Apart from NOFN, projects like MAX Next Generation Network Services by C-DOT, BSNL's, Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) customer service are also opportunity for us in India,” Natarajan said.
