Brajeshvar Wadhavan, Sales Director, Security Business Unit, Gemalto

Brajeshvar Wadhavan, Sales Director, Security Business Unit, Gemalto (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Power & Industrial Electronics. His focus areas include Identity and eGov applications (including SCOSTA) such as national ID, e-passport, subsidiary as well as developing opportunities in enterprise security, online authentication, eBanking and eCommerce. Brajeshvar is experienced in the fields of business development, market research and sales and marketing of technology products and services, including large tenders, contract formulation and negotiations.

Gemalto is a world leader in digital security and has been in India since 1996, serving the needs of the Indian market with customized products and solutions across various sectors. The company is multinational, public company with global revenue of more than Euro 2 billion and total employee strength of greater than 10,000 worldwide. An innovator in digital security, Gemalto has 1400 digital scientists, 4200 patents and patent applications. Gemalto delivers on the ever-increasing needs for Telecommunications, Security and Secure Transactions.

Replying to Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL, Brajeshvar Wadhavan says, “We provide secure products and software for digital signature storage applications which incorporates Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), allowing Indian users to securely authenticate and sign e-documents.”

What scope do you see in Identity and e-Governance applications?

In India, we have played a key role together with the industry and Government in the creation of the India national smart card standards – SCOSTA. We have delivered millions of SCOSTA cards for e-driving license and vehicle registration projects in India. 

We provide secure products and software for digital signature storage applications which incorporates Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), allowing Indian users to securely authenticate and sign e-documents. This enables eGov applications such as e-filing, MCA21 applications, e-tending, etc.

In the coming years, we foresee a major growth for e-Identification documents in the areas of Public Distributions System (PDS) and land records. 

What are some of the current challenges faced by organizations?

Gemalto believes that the following issues are the current challenges faced by organizations:

Increasing data theft from magnetic payment cards: Chip-based cards cannot be easily skimmed and cloned, enabling users to combat payment card fraud.

Theft of Identity and unauthorized access management: The popularity of ‘Bring your own device’ trend has brought new challenges to IT security departments. The protection of identities and secure access to IT infrastructure is a key challenge in the realm of enterprise security.

In addition, as more governments around the world develop and launch eGovernment services, identity protection and secure access to these e-services will be another area of concern.

Multichannel attacks on e-Banking and online services: In India, eBanking has grown from 1% to 7% of the total bank account holders during 2007-2011. To prevent fraud, banks will invest in more advanced solutions such as two-factor authentication with one-time-password (OTP) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

Demand to secure mobile Near Field Communication (NFC) transactions will accelerate: Trusted Service Manager (TSM) enables the secure transmission of payment card details to NFC devices for contactless payments. TSM is an open and interoperable platform which ensures end-to-end security encryption between banks and the SIM/UICC cards in mobile devices.

Tell us about your expertise in digital security and what opportunity do you see in India?

Gemalto’s activities range from the development of software applications through the design and production of secure personal devices such as smart cards, SIMs, e-passports and tokens, to the deployment of managed services for customers.

India, with its rapidly expanding economy, offers tremendous growth potential and Gemalto is well-placed to meet these growing needs of the government, businesses and citizens of India. We see opportunities in several industries in India, such as financial institutions, telcos, government and enterprise in areas such as e-banking, strong authentication, secure e-Identification documents, mobile money and mobile financial services.

Explain to us your business model. What would be the revenue break-up from the major segments? 

Gemalto sells through its direct sales force as well as channel partners and system integrators. 

For FY2011, Gemalto’s revenues from ongoing operations globally were Euro 2 billion, up by 9% compared to FY2010, at constant rate. Global profits from ongoing operations were at Euro 239 million, up 15% from the previous financial year. 

Our revenues by business unit, based on our FY2011 results, are as follows:

Which are your main verticals? Which are the new verticals you are likely to enter?

Gemalto’s products and solutions are mainly catered to these verticals:

• Financial Services & Retail

• Government

• Transport

• Enterprise

• Telecommunications

Gemalto also has offerings in services such as Cloud, Machine to Machine (M2M), MFS, etc, in existing verticals. 

Tell us about your presence in the Mobile Communications space. 

Globally, more than 450 Mobile Network Operators worldwide trust us with the development and implementation of their mobile services, since the birth of GSM. We have been in India since 1996, providing SIM cards, personalization of SIM cards and addressing the evolving needs and trends of the telecommunications industry in India. 

We play a key role in Long Term Evolution (LTE), a 4G mobile broadband standard which is an evolution of the 3G wireless network standard. Gemalto’s Over The Air (OTA) and UICC solutions help operators deploy value-added services, such as ensuring the success of the streaming of multimedia content over LTE networks. Gemalto is working with Verizon Wireless in the U.S. to pave the way for the development of device provisioning platforms for LTE devices. 

Gemalto is also present in the field of Mobile Financial Services (MFS), which consists of mobile Near Field Communications (NFC), Mobile Money and Mobile Banking. 

In mobile NFC, our Allynis Trusted Service Manager (TSM) combines banking grade security and interoperability for the installation and management of secure mobile NFC services. Gemalto has an unrivalled track record with over 50 NFC projects worldwide, which includes the IDA national consortium in Singapore, ISIS and Chase in the U.S., as well as Orange and Crédit Agricole in France among others. 

In Mobile Money we enable remote payments and money transfers via mobile devices while ensuring payment security and end-user privacy. Our Mobile Banking solutions allows consumers to securely access their bank account anywhere, anytime via their mobile devices.  Gemalto has involved in the implementation of more than 70 platforms of Mobile Financial Services worldwide. Gemalto has helped América Móvil, a leading telecommunications services provider in Latin America, to provide an innovative and efficient payment instrument called – Transfer – to its customers for carrying out transfers and air time purchasing, among other operations. All these activities are done from a mobile device through SMS messaging.

Lastly, Gemalto also provides roaming solutions such as call steering, anti-steering and wifi-roaming and Digital Life Management solutions such as phonebook backup, mobile marketing and SIM-based social media solutions such as SIMessenger and Facebook for SIM.

Explain to us about Gemalto’s innovative contact and contactless cards. What are your offerings in the secure online transactions space? 

Gemalto provides chip-based credit and debit cards based on the EMV standard.  Our Combi card features both contact and contactless functionalities within a single card. This allows payment card providers to extend the functionality of their cards into micropayments and transportation, increasing their return on investment. 

For online transactions, our Ezio Display Card integrates the functionality of a One Time Password (OTP) token within the form factor of a credit card. This allows banks to provide a single card that delivers payment and security for online transactions and e-banking.

Is there any pick up in mobile-TV and mobile payments? How are you reading the situation? 

Ovum, an IT research firm, estimates that by 2014, number of mobile broadband subscribers will grow by 1000%, with more than 2 billion mobile broadband users generating annual revenues of $137 billion globally.

Mobile Payment creates value for service providers by creating new sources of revenue and stimulating the existing customer base with value-added-services.

Few of the issues that affect the growth of mobile payments in India are highlighted below:

• Security concerns – Mobile transactions are vulnerable to attacks such as phishing, pharming, keyboard logging.

• Adoption of technology – In India, a shift from retail banking to newer methods such as e-banking or m-banking is still not very common.

• Non awareness of mobile financial services – Users are not aware of potential benefits of mobile banking.

Gemalto offers a comprehensive range of solutions and services compliant with various required standards and available on multiple form factors. We also offer various solutions to secure and authenticate subscribers on streaming schemes (Wi-Fi, LTE, 3G and IPTV).

As reference, Gemalto has successfully collaborated with MNO such as H3G (Italy), MTN (RSA) and NTT DoCoMo & KDDI (Japan) for their Mobile TV deployment.

With its economic growth, large population and an increasingly advanced technology industry, India is definitely a promising country for Mobile TV and will probably become a key market.

What is your employee strength globally; and in India? 

Gemalto’s global employee strength is about 10,000.  In India, Gemalto has over 100 employees placed in various business and support functions including sales, marketing, technical support, software development and system integration. We have 4 offices in India, located in Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Noida. 

What are your expansion plans in India and how would they be funded? 

India is a growing market and offers huge potential to Gemalto. A key market for Gemalto, we have long-term business interests in India and are committed to the Indian market, our customers, alliances and partners in India.