Delhi Metro Tuesday unveiled “smart key chains”, a new smart card that is half the size of the present one and more friendly for thousands of commuters who wish to travel ticket-less.
“The sleek new ’smart key chains’ can be used in the same way as normal smart cards to enter and exit Metro stations, that is by swiping on the designated space on the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates,” Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.
“The decision to introduce the smart key chains was taken as many Metro commuters use cars, two-wheelers or bicycles and normally use key chains which they can now replace with the new devices,” he added.
While the Metro smart cards are of the size of credit cards so that they can be kept in wallets, the smart key chains are much smaller so that they can easily be carried in pockets. The corners are rounded and the sides tapered so that they do not cause cuts while being taken out. They are made with high-quality plastic and are coated with acrylic resin to make them unbreakable.
Delhi Metro has procured 50,000 smart key chains in the first lot. About 1.5 million smart cards are presently in circulation. Among over 900,000 Metro commuters daily, 55 percent are smart card users while the rest use tokens.

IMS Research forecasts that the number of contactless smart cards shipping per annum is projected to break the 1 billion mark in 2014. Today contactless smart cards are being used in a growing number of applications, from fast and efficient metro systems, to contactless debit cards, to quicker transfers in airports with biometric passports.
According to report analyst, Don Tait, “The market for contactless is set to nearly double between 2008 and 2014 as the three largest end-user sectors, government & healthcare ID, transportation and payment & banking cards, all see contactless gain more traction.”
The government & healthcare sector is the largest contactless application for smart cards, having been traditionally driven by shipments of contactless memory cards into China’s national ID program. However, IMS Research expects that in the future it will comprise of a growing number of smaller schemes employing microcontroller-based cards, such as driver’s licenses, healthcare, national ID and e-passports in many different countries.
In the transportation sector, ease and speed of use with minimal human intervention and enhanced security features are key market drivers to the adoption of contactless smart cards. Contactless is able to increase traveller throughput and (pre-paid) electronic ticketing, parking payment and toll collection are prime examples where it is increasingly used to deliver better service and an improved customer experience.
Despite few shipments to date compared to ID and transportation, payment & banking is set to be the fastest growing area for contactless. With card issuers and banks pushing contactless in key markets, consumer awareness and acceptance of contactless smart cards is now growing. More and more retailers have successfully trialled contactless and the convenience offered of making payments in this manner has been highlighted. The increasing rollout of contactless payment terminals at point of sale will increase the adoption of contactless payments as it offers fast and convenient transactions.
Progress is being made though, with Nokia and significant others such as MasterCard and Visa backing NFC, along with on-going trials of the technology in “open environments”. Despite this, IMS Research is not forecasting major contactless shipments in mobile until 2012.

The city’s $2.9-million electronic overhaul of the transit fare system will be launched in February with new debit-style smart cards for riders and high-end card readers and fare boxes on the entire bus fleet. Read more »

Dynamic Card Solutions (DCS), the leading provider of instant issuance and PIN selection solutions for banks, credit unions and retailers that issue magnetic stripe, EMV and contactless cards, today announced EMV Smart Start™, a bundled suite of software and services designed for card issuers who want to issue EMV credit and debit cards. Read more »

Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB) announced today that it has established a new subsidiary in India — Cubic Transportation Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. — and is entering this dynamic regional market with a five-month trial of Cubic’s smart card-based fare collection technology aboard buses in Delhi. Cubic’s new office in the growing high-tech hub of Hyderabad, India, will pursue automated fare collection systems and services business throughout the country and provide software development support for transportation projects worldwide. Read more »

As part of the continuous process of introducing the national smart card, two institutions have already agreed to integrate their data under one system.

The Coordinator of the National ID (NID) Project, Pascal Nyamurinda, said in an interview with The New Times that the proposed card would incorporate data of an individual’s driver’s license as well as that of travel documents. Read more »

Efforts to protect information technology systems from hackers, terrorists and even accidental breaches are getting a lot of national attention in the security arena. But a Herndon company, Certipath LLC, is more focused on threats that might walk right through the front door. Read more »