A scarcity of semiconductor chips continues to impression the problem of chip-baseddriver’s licences and vehicle registration playing cards, to the frustration of recent automobile house owners.
Throughout most of 2022 and the start of 2023, disruption within the provide chain and the Russia-Ukraine warfare brought on a scarcity of chips that meant that sensible drivers’ license weren’t issued, mentioned Pethi Sarguru, CEO of Versatile Card Know-how( VCT) one of many largest producers of sensible playing cards used for PAN playing cards and voter IDs.
Tenders for manufacture of those sensible paperwork are but to be floated in a number of states, mentioned a number of individuals conscious of the scenario. In Maharashtra, the tender for sensible drivers’ licences has been awarded to Manipal Applied sciences, Vivek Bhimanwar, Transport Commisioner, Maharashtra informed ET, including that he expects the scarcity to ease in two or three months as soon as the provider is on-boarded.
P Srinivas Rao , chairman & CEO of KL Hello-Tech, a Hyderabad-based supplier of safe primarily based printing options to monetary establishments and banks, mentioned that tenders for drivers’ licences are in course of in a number of different states.
Scarcity of chips affected issuance of playing cards by banks late final 12 months, however the scenario improved after intervention by authorities and personal businesses.
A number of vehicle sellers mentioned that there are delays in issuing drivers’ licences in addition to sensible playing cards for automobile registration.
In some states Covid led disruptions have created issues for brand new automobile patrons over the complete final 12 months. An IT worker in Kolkata informed ET that he had purchased his new automotive in mid 2022 and by no means obtained the sensible card for it. “The authorities had informed me to make do with Digilocker or get a paper print out,,” he mentioned.
A senior official of the motorcar division in Kolkata mentioned that there was no tender course of initiated throughout the pandemic, and since gross sales of recent automobiles skyrocketed in 2021-2022, that led to an enormous backlog. “Now if these automotive house owners intend to get a sensible card, they might want to apply for a replica one,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, with the appearance of Digilocker, the issue of harassment from roadside site visitors personnel has gone down although, mentioned Nikunj Sanghi ,a number one automotive supplier primarily based out of Alwar.
The official quoted above mentioned that given many of the automobile house owners have digital copies of their paperwork, the relevance of a sensible card is one thing that must be re-examined.
“India is transferring in the direction of a digital ecosystem and to hold a whole lot of paperwork in your automobile can’t be the long run,” he added.
