India’s vehicle registration programme has initially been rolled out in the States of New Delhi and Gujarat, and will be shortly followed by the States of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Together the four State Governments aim to issue a total of 30 million cards to vehicle owners by 2008, with several other States to follow. The SCOSTA smart chip from Gemplus (GemSCOSTA) will securely store statutory data about the vehicle, its registration and the owner, while the card body will have basic cardholder data printed on them. Information about vehicle history, pollution control certification and other vehicle documents, are stored on the optical strip. Gemplus is working closely with local BOOT2 project contractor and system integrator, Shonkh Technologies Int’l Ltd, who will manage all implementation work. The system will offer immediate access to information about drivers and their vehicles to Police/Road Transport authorities in the field. A Police/Road Transport officer equipped with a portable reader terminal is able to insert the vehicle registration card in the reader and instantly retrieve data about the vehicle and its owner, as well as records regarding certificate of pollution control etc. Initially, the optical smart card will only serve the vehicle registration application, but the plan is to eventually extend the card to support additional applications, such as petrol loyalty, e-purse, insurance etc. carl.norell@gemplus.com www.gemplus.com