The Smart Card Research Lab at the School aims to proliferate smart card usage in India. This involves the study of feasibility of deploying a smart card based payment system in India, and to develop comprehensive National Standards.

The Smart Card Lab is actively involved in various projects sponsored by the Ministry of Information Technology and IDRBT -


Developing multi-applications framework for smart cards:

Developing applications which run on the multi application framework of Java Cards; developing front-ends which acts as a client, the server application on the Smart Card; integrating the back-end where all the transactions on the Smart Card are reflected.


Developing Low Cost smart card terminals:

To encourage transactions using smart card in India, this technology should be made inexpensive. Since smart card terminal is the only component required at every POS end, it should be affordable, scalable, and user-friendly. As the prices of hardware are falling, developing smart card terminals at lower cost has become possible.


XML agents on Smart Cards:

With the increase of resources and processing power on the Smart Cards, their applicability has moved from a domain specific application to a more generic one. This project is aimed at futuristic card applications, which could make use of an XML agent on the card. This will significantly enhance the inter-operability of the smart card applications.


Supervising the ZERO-MASS Pilot project, along with IDRBT:

ZERO-Mass (Multi-Application Smart card Solutions) is an initiative from a Consortium of Indian and global companies for mass-deployment of secure multi-application smart card solutions through a network of Multi-Functional Service Delivery Points (SDPs). The Consortium is committed to the deployment of vendor independent, open, inter-operable standards and global best practices, to bring the benefits of the best technology solutions for mass deployment.