Major smart card market players include CardLogix Corporation, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) GmbH, NXP Semiconductors NV, CPI Card Group, and Ingenico Group.

Although the bulk of the total demand is expected to come from the "Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojna" (RSBY), we expect a number of private and government health insurance providers to adopt smart card technology in the short and medium terms.

As a result of the governments phase-wise digitization programme, the demand of smart cards in the Pay TV sector is expected to increase robustly in India.

During 2013-2018, we expect smart cards to further percolate into a number of other sectors such as credit/debit cards, financial inclusion, public distribution, healthcare, identity management, transportation, etc.

Attractive features and subsidies from the RBI have rapidly increased the uptake of EMV cards in recent months.

Smart cards are expected to change the lives of millions of people living in remote villages who have no access to any kind of financial services.

Till recently, the telecom sector has been the only prominent user of smart cards in the country. The picture is now undergoing a radical change.

India has historically lagged behind the west and other major Asian countries in the usage of smart cards. The country, however, is poised to enter a smart revolution or to make it more precise - a smart card revolution