Aadhaar gets boost with Samsung 'Made in India' tablet

Firm hopes to win back the lead in tablet market by tapping into hundreds of thousands of government & enterprise users

Samsung expects to score over rivals by being the preferred device maker for delivering government services with its iris scanner-equipped tablets for Aadhaar authentication.

The company, on Wednesday, announced its Galaxy Tab Iris, the first tablet equipped with an Aadhaar-certified iris scanner in India. The device, which will cost Rs 13,499, is aimed at government and enterprise customers.

“The tablet integrated with iris scanner for Aadhaar authentication is going to be a game changer,” said Nandan Nilekani, chief architect of the Aadhaar project. “This can have multiple uses. For instance, an agent can go to anyone’s home with this tablet and open a bank account instantly.”

Citizen services such as payments of subsidies, schemes and entitlement distribution that require authentication can now be handled with the device. Moreover, banks and other enterprises that rely on authentication of customers will now be able to deliver services seamlessly.

Apart from hardware that will enable biometric authentication, Samsung has also released an Identity SDK that will allow developers to build applications that utilise the Aadhaar backbone. Further, start-ups in the technology space could be incentivised to use the Aadhaar database since the Samsung tablet will allow them do away with bulky and expensive iris scanners.

While it is aimed at helping boost India’s digital push, the technology that has enabled Samsung to build the device was in part developed in India at its research development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru. Also, by tapping into hundreds of thousands of government and enterprise users, the company hopes to win back the lead in India’s tablet market.

According to IDC, Samsung ranked second in India’s tablet market after Datawind, with a share of 15.2 per cent. “Our India R&D team has made significant investments in biometric technology research and we built this product leveraging our knowledge in hardware design, biometrics and security for a high-speed scan, greater accuracy and high reliability,” said Aloknath De, corporate vice-president and chief technology officer at Samsung India R&D.

There are around 250 million smartphone users in India. This number is expected to double by 2020.

Specifications:

• Display - 7-inch
• Connectivity - 3G
• OS - Android
• Storage - 8GB (upto 200GB microSD card)