THE eSecurity Group of Advanced Technology Centre of Tata Consultancy Services, based at Hyderabad, in collaboration with its Bangalore VLSI design centre, is developing smart card-based solution and expects to roll out services in the next six months.
The Head of Advanced Technology Centre and Vice-President, TCS, Dr M. Vidyasagar, said that this was one of the ambitious projects of TCS that aimed to bring down the cost of smart cards by building security solutions into them. As against the entry-level cost of about Rs 700 to Rs 2,500 per card, this initiative is aimed at slashing the price to about Rs 200.
TCS-CA offers a Web-based Managed-PKI solution that provides legal sanctity, flexibility and scalability. A registration authority exclusively manages and controls the issuing process of digital certificates and authenticates and verifies all the subscribers and advices TCS-CA to issue digital certificates to them. Apollo Sindoori will be able to issue digital certificates to all its clients, according to a TCS communiqué.
"We are at advanced stage of work on this project as this will significantly cut the entry barrier for smart card adoption in the country. We are in parleys with both Central and State Governments including Andhra Pradesh for various smart card projects. One of the vital areas that needs to be addressed is with regard to bringing down the total cost of ownership for these cards," Dr Vidyasagar told newspersons here.Highlighting the TCS eSecurity practice, Dr Vidyasagar said that the company's end-to-end solutions for eSecurity would gradually catch up with corporates and individuals. One of the problems for its faster adoption is the cost of acquisition of digital signatures. "We are working towards bringing down the cost of digital certificates. Even though many financial institutions and banks are keen to adopt these technologies, the cost continues to be an entry barrier".
Announcing that TCS Certifying Authority has bagged a PKI (public key infrastructure) project from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), New Delhi, Dr Vidyasagar said that the company's eSecurity group would deploy its PKI and digital signature services at the institute. This will be the first educational institute to adopt PKI and digital signature technology, which is a de facto standard for e-security in the world today for transforming their office to a paperless office.
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