DigitalPersona Fingerprint Readers Helping to Verify Citizen Identities in India

- 60,000 biometric-enabled readers deployed for banking and government programs

REDWOOD CITY, California, March 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- DigitalPersona, Inc., a trusted partner for biometric identity verification solutions, today announced that more than 60,000 of its biometric sensors are helping millions of citizens throughout India access a variety of entitlement programs and banking services.  Officials from Visiontek, a worldwide supplier of customer premised telecom equipment and software solutions, chose to incorporate the DigitalPersona® TCS1 Steelcoat sensor into handheld biometric readers for several reasons, including cost and compliance with national Standardization Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) criteria for image quality and ruggedness.

"Achieving the equally important goals of citizen convenience, fraud prevention and low program costs requires exceptional technology," said Ramesh Chunduru, director of sales and marketing for Visiontek. "We chose the TCS1 Steelcoat sensor because it consistently captures quality fingerprints in a variety of demanding environmental conditions. It also offers the most economical solution in terms of lifetime cost of ownership."

As in most banking and entitlement programs, fraudulent activities — such as ghost identities and impersonation — were creating significant operational and budgetary problems for both financial institutions and government agencies.  After studying a number of options, Visiontek chose to address those problems with fingerprint biometrics built around the DigitalPersona sensor.

Field officers use handheld devices to scan fingerprints of citizens who want to access banking services, entitlement programs and other privileges that require assured identification. Scanned images are compared to identity data stored in one of three places — a secure central database, a smart card carried by citizens or in a point of sale (POS) terminal.

Confirmed identities are used to grant access to food distribution programs for Indian citizens and microfinance products for consumers who were previously "unbanked." The readers are also used to verify both performance and payment in the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

"We're proud to be part of programs that bring entitlements to Indian citizens and financial inclusion to people who previously had no access to banking services," said Richard Agostinelli, DigitalPersona president and CEO. "Because the Indian government has chosen biometrics as the preferred method of secure identification — and because the TCS1 is the only STQC-certified silicon sensor on the market — we expect our involvement in these critical programs will continue to grow."

The TCS1 fingerprint sensor offers an exceptionally large image capture area, which helps ensure the best possible biometric performance. The popular sensor is being used for a variety of public and private applications worldwide, including logical and physical access control, mobile transactions, time-and-attendance and law enforcement.

"Clearly, integrators and end-users are placing lots of emphasis on quality image capture, device ruggedness and low total cost of ownership," Agostinelli said. "We believe that's why the TCS1 sensor is being selected for so many secure identity programs worldwide."

About DigitalPersona
DigitalPersona offers the world's broadest portfolio of biometrics-based identity verification solutions. Applications range from highly secure banking environments and complex government identity programs to point-of-sale retail systems. Our solutions verify the identity of more than 200 million authorized users worldwide and significantly reduce the risk of fraud, theft and unauthorized access. Offerings for end-users and system integrators include industry-specific software applications, complete SDKs and a full range of optical, silicon, touch, swipe and embedded readers.  For more information call +1-650-474-4000 or send an email to [email protected].