VP-Business Development,
Delta ID
ActiveIRIS® technology of Delta ID, when integrated with a mobile device, makes Aadhaar authentication and eKYC easy, secure and reliable, thus encouraging both Central and state governments to rollout more authentication-based services for the benefit of the masses, says Vivek Khandelwal, VP-Business Development, Delta ID, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN)
Give us an overview of the services Delta ID offers to its customers. How does your solutions helping the Union Government and various state governments?
Delta ID is the world’s first company to bring iris recognition to consumer mobile devices. Our ActiveIRIS® technology can be integrated into mobile devices, and is extremely easy for consumers to use. ActiveIRIS® is now deployed in a various smartphones from global smartphone OEMs, and now most recently introduced in the Galaxy Tab Iris tablet from Samsung.
Now that the Union and state governments are scaling up the use of Aadhaar for various service disbursements, they need an even more stable, secure and more importantly, a reliable system.The iris works for people across broader age groups. Additionally, the iris, being an internal organ, it works across people from various occupations. Our ActiveIRIS® technology when integrated with a mobile device makes Aadhaar Auth and eKYC easy, secure and reliable, which will allow the Union and the state governments to successfully rollout more services, with farther reach across all demographics, and significantly lower problems reported in field.
Reports suggest that Delta ID came into existence after Aadhaar was rolled out by the government. Since Aadhaar is an important component of JAM trinity, what plans do you have for the BFSI domain? How the application can help the banking sector?
Delta ID indeed came into existence after large-scale tests established iris as a better modality for Aadhaar. Since inception, our mission has been to bring iris to mobile, one of the components of JAM, and the result is our ActiveIRIS® technology. The BFSI domain stands to gain the most from both iris and mobile. One key aspect of iris important for the BFSI domain is security. The iris is intrinsically more secure, has orders of magnitude better false accept rate compared to fingerprints, which translates into lower risks of fraud for BFSI domain. Additionally, iris on a mobile device makes it easier to have this level of security and reliability in a more easy to use and deploy platform.
What are your plans and strategies for expanding Delta ID’s presence in India?
Delta ID has already established a presence in India. With the increased interest and momentum around the use of iris on mobile, we are now expanding our team to work with partners and customers here. In addition to supporting our immediate customers, the mobile OEMs, we also want to educate and evangelise the use of iris amongst our customers, such as the banking and finance customers.
Since inception (of Delta IT), our mission has been to bring iris to mobile, one of the crucial components of JAM, and the result is our ActiveIRIS® technology. The BFSI domain stands to gain the most from both iris and mobile
The government is laying a lot of stress on Digital India and Make in India programmes to give a fillip to the country’s economy. What is your view on these flagships schemes of the government?
Digital India and Make in India, both point to a very progressive stance the government has taken towards developing and integrating digital technology into our daily lives, thereby giving a boost to the economy. Authentication and security are the foundations on which both these initiatives will build upon. We look at Aadhaar as one of the most important infrastructure components to enable both these programmes.
Last year, Delta ID had unveiled its ActiveIRIS technology that powers the iris recognition feature of Fujitsu’s smartphone. How is this technology beneficial for the BFSI sector?
The BFSI sector is always looking for the weakest link in the chain when it comes to authentication and security. The mobile device is one of the key links in this chain, followed by the mobile user, the network and so on. The Fujitsu smartphone uses iris for device unlock, thereby ensuring that only the authorised person gets access to a mobile device. In the context of BFSI sector, such an unlock feature will ensure that only the right operator gets to access device and provides services to the end users — customers.
What is your opinion on the emerging of Payments Banks? Do you have any products to cater to the demands of such banks?
Mobile is central to Payment Banking. Since all their transactions are on a mobile device, the need for authentication of the mobile device and the people using the mobile device for such transactions will play a critical role. Our ActiveI-RIS® technology has two components, one enables local authentication for secure access to mobile devices, as in the case of the Fujitsu device, the other component enables iris capture for authentication by the Aadhaar backend, as in the case of the Samsung Galaxy Tab Iris. Both these components are of interest to Payment Banks.
What kind of challenges are you facing in the market? Can you demystify the same for us?
We are seeing certain challenges that are typical in adoption of new technologies, for example, the need to educate the market about the benefits of the technology. We believe that the increased use of Aadhaar and preference for mobile devices in sectors such as BFSI will help us address this.
