Germany opts for the smart card

Why would Germany, the developed country that it is, come to India looking for solutions to deliver its educational subsidies?

The answer lies in the way the smart card has been designed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the health insurance scheme for the poorest of the poor. According to Anil Swarup, director general of labour welfare in the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment, which operates RSBY, the Germans wanted a secure system that would work offline, too. That is how the ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with German municipalities for application of smart card technology. The Indo-German Social Security Programme (IGSSP) has initiated a dialogue with some German municipalities to explore how the smart card technology, as used for RSBY, might be applied in the European country, too. Germany is particularly interested in transfer of the NIC technology to administer its package of educational subsidies that form part of the benefits under Sozialgesetzbuch II (SGB II) or the basic income support for job seekers.

One of the cities keen on using the smart cards is Offenbach, a municipality close to Frankfurt, which has a high share of immigrants in its population. According to IGSSP, 15.4 per cent of the German and 25.3 per cent of the foreign population receive welfare benefits from SGB II, that is, 10,012 and 8,613 inhabitants respectively.

It is learned that the online system which handles the educational package was finding it cumbersome, particularly the delivery of subsidies for meals at schools. It was felt that a process using smart cards would prove simpler and more efficient. Accordingly, the Indians have developed a smart card-based process flow which includes a management system for the caterers. Thereafter, the software would be developed for the project in time for the schools’ reopening in August after the summer break.

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