Aratek Aims at Indian Gov’t Market with STQC Certifications

Important new certifications are opening doors for Aratek in the Indian market: The company has announced that both its Aratek A400 capacitive fingerprint scanner and its A600 optical fingerprint scanner have received certification from the Directorate of Standardization Testing and Quality Certification, or STQC.

A division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the STQC is in the critical position of ensuring that biometric technologies are suitable for use with Aadhaar, India’s national ID program. Biometric authentication is a strong component of Aadhaar, with citizens’ fingerprint, face, and iris biometrics collected upon registration and used in subsequent transactions.

Those transactions can cover a wide range of areas, with Aadhaar authentication increasingly used not only for the distribution of social subsidies (the program’s original, primary purpose) but for things like opening bank accounts and even making purchases.

Commenting on the STQC certification in a statement, Aratek sales VP Samuel Wu emphasized its implications in enabling the company to serve the Indian government directly. “These certifications strongly position us to help the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) implement Aadhaar more easily and conveniently, resulting in better service to the Indian people,” he said.

With the A400 and A600 scanners having already secured FBI PIV certifications pertaining to FAP 10 and FAP 20, respectively, the new STQC certifications further attest to the devices’ advanced specifications. And the certifications arrive soon after Aratek’s BIONE fingerprint algorithm attained MINEX III certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, burnishing Aratek’s overall reputation for technological excellence.

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August 6, 2019 – by Alex Perala