in person
The main drivers of biometric projects are the on-going revolution in e-Governance due to citizen-driven expectations
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in person
Jean Paul Jainsky Chairman and CEO Morpho
“Moving
towards Realising
the UID Dream”
M
ahindra Satyam-Morpho is among the three successful bidders to the prestigious Aadhaar (Unique Identification) project of India, and inked the formal contract with UIDAI for a duration of 2-years recently. How important is this deal for you and how optimistic you are of the project?
Jean Paul Jainsky is a French
As the world leader in automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) and ID management solutions, Morpho has proven its ability to manage large-scale projects and develop customised solutions. This project represents another challenge due to the size of the database. In addition, it is a multi-purpose project that combines social and financial aspects. The UID Project is a major technological challenge since very few companies are capable of successfully implementing such a large database. Morpho has already proven its ability to deploy large-scale projects in France, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Malaysia and other countries – although these are of course limited compared to the impressive scale of the UID project. Looking beyond the solely technological aspects, the UID project also gives us the opportunity to take part in a project that will support India’s development and take advantage of the demographic dividend to keep moving forward. This is at the heart of Morpho’s mission and reflects our ongoing commitment to India. The UID Project is clearly a transformational initiative that will change the course of biometrics technology. Moreover, we are pleased to put our know-how and technology to the service of the UIDAI. We are confident that this project will be a success due to the implication of the UIDAI team and the government and the number of resources involved.
Nationale Supérieure des Arts
national with over 30 years’ experience in industry and a consistent focus on the security of individuals, companies and states. He is a graduate from the French ENSAM (Ecole et Métiers) in Paris. Since July 2007, he is the Chairman & CEO, Morpho (earlier Sagem Seurite). In an interview with Prachi Shirur of e-Gov, Jean Paul informes about the prestigious importance and implementation of Aadhaar project, for which UIDAI has partnered with Morpho along with others. He also shares Morpho’s e-Governance initiatives in India.
How is India’s UID project, unique compared to other such projects world-wide? The UID project differs from others in a few ways. Most of the projects worldwide are deployed to eventually issue ID cards. In this regard, UID is the first April 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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IN PERSON
Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Public Distribution System (PDS), Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and MNIC 1 & 2 (Multipurpose National Identity Card) our Indian subsidiary is a market leader and has been active in a number of e-Governance programmes in providing smart cards, technology and also field implementation. The Smart Card Driving Licenses in various states, the RSBY programme and a large number of other e-Governance initiatives are being implemented by us, at the enrollment phase. The card personalisation, card production, and card issuance are the areas where Morpho is a known name. Today, Morpho has already deployed
antees the basis of all links between a citizen and his/her government, the fact to have an acknowledged identity from the State. The second is of course security concerns with trans-border criminal and terrorist threats.
Morpho (Safran group) has also recently won a Security Innovation Award for its MorphoSmart FINGER VP, the world’s first ever multi-modal finger vein and finger-print device. Tell us more about this device. The Finger VP, a multi-modal device, has been developed in collaboration
“in today’s digital world
Expectations of the citizens, are an instant and efficient
exchange of services based on technology”
identification system where the token (a card) may or may not be issued. UID is unique from the other identification projects in the world on three main aspects: the most relevant in the scale, UID is multi-biometrics and the third is in the manner of authentication (from the backend). UID could lead to a revolution in the identification process worldwide by creating the first intangible identification system at such a big scale. It combines the iris, the fingerprints and a photograph in its database. However, it differs on the size of the database. Enrolling 1.2-2 billion persons, represents an important technological challenge. The goal is to enroll 600 million persons in the next 4 years.
Tell us about the progress of your company’s other projects with the Indian Government. In projects such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA),
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getting personal Education Graduate from the French ENSAM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers) in Paris Recognition Security including biometrics solutions for governments (fingerprint, iris, face recognition), access control, biometric terminals, smart cards (identity, payment, telecommunications), payment and lottery terminals
more than 30,000 biometrics terminals in India. We produce one million smart cards per day, and since 2003, more than 30 million persons have already been enrolled through our technology in India. Morpho has been implementing biometric and smart card based programmes worldwide. Thus, we have a wide experience in various cultures, countries and contexts. For this reason, Morpho has been very successful in such programmes in India.
What are some of the growth drivers of biometrics projects globally? How big is this market world-wide? The main drivers of biometric projects are the on-going revolution in e-Governance due to citizen-driven expectations. In our digital world, the expectations of the citizens are an instant and an efficient exchange of services based on technology. In that sense, biometrics is the only technology that fully guar-
with Hitachi. It combines Hitachi’s Finger Vein technology and Morpho’s fingerprint identification technology. A Finger VP is capable of capturing and processing at the same time fingerprint and finger vein biometric data. The Finger VP detects a very large amount of complementary and relevant biometric features. A consolidated template is generated. The fore, middle or ring fingers are the ones recommended for capture. Biometric data are extracted and matched in the device.
What are some of your future plans for Morpho in the coming years? First of all, Morpho will deploy all its resources to make the UID a success. In parallel, as we are already involved in the UID project, we will certainly be present in the e-Governance projects that may come soon in India. Sagem Sécurité (Safran group) was renamed as Morpho in May 2010