Mr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizers launched world’s first ever facial Bio-Metric Data Based Seafarer Identity Document (BSID). It has features like capturing the facial bio-metric data of seafarers. India had also made a presentation on this technology at ILO (International Labor Organization).
Shri. Mandaviya said that today’s development is very significant against the backdrop of the increase in seafaring activities. The new document will give a foolproof identification to our seafarers which will facilitate their movement, provide ease of getting jobs and help in identifying them from any location in the world.
He further said, “The shipping sector is seeing major developments in the areas of coastal shipping, inland waterways and other maritime activities. This is leading to generation of employment in the sector, which is evident in the growing number of Indian seafarers in the international shipping industry. The total number of Indian seafarers who were employed on Indian or foreign flag vessels increased from 154349 in 2017 to 208799 this year, showing an unprecedented increase of 35%.”
The BSID introduces modern security features with a biometric chip embedded in it. The security of the BSID card is ensured at various levels and through different methods. At the time of data capturing the live face is cross matched through passport photo using a face matching software. The card has two optical security features- Micro prints/micro texts and Unique Guilloche pattern. A software has been developed for capturing the facial biometrics and its authentication through the public key infrastructure.
The new technology is an important improvement over the two fingers or iris based traditional bio-metric data, with modern security features. It will make the identification of the ‘seafarer identity document’ holder more reliable and efficient, while protecting their dignity and privacy.
Data collection centers have been setup at nine locations viz. Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Noida, Goa, New Mangalore, Kochi, Vizag & Kandla for the issue of BSID.
