India, one of the largest seafarer suppliers globally, has launched a chip-based identity card for its seafarers that uses face recognition technology for identification.

The card was launched by Mansukhlal Mandaviya, Minister of Shipping (Independent Charge) here today.

India had made a presentation to use this technology to ILO, and it has become the first country globally to issue such identity cards.

This is better than the finger print based identity card as fingers of people who tend to work with hands can get damaged. Also, eye-scan based identification can have a problem if eyes are damaged.

The validity of face recognition-based identity card is forever and can last almost till some-one’s death.

Almost 2.08 lakh Indian seafarers are employed globally. India will issue these identity cards at nine locations – eight port-based cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Kochi, New Mangalore Port, Kandla and Delhi.

This secured identification documentation will help increase the employability of Indian seafarers as they can be identified anywhere and the card also provides their employment details.

Amitabh Kumar, DG-Shipping, said that India has the capacity to issue 900 such cards every day. Almost 10 per cent of seafarers employed globally are Indian.

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