ESIC to issue smart cards from next week

The Employees State Insurance Corporation will begin issuing biometric smart cards to its 1.2 crore members from next week as the first phase of its Rs 1,200 crore e-governance project gets off the block. The cards will allow the subscribers and their family to avail medical and other benefits offered by the corporation in any designated hospital anywhere in the country besides making its healthcare services totally paperless.

Issuing of smart cards is one of the key components of the ESICs e-governance programme christened Project Panchdeep for which the corporation had awarded the contract to IT major Wipro. The project is expected to be completed by August next year and the beneficiaries will be able to fully enjoy the benefits of smart card after that.

Every beneficiary will get two cards 8211; one for him and the other for his family. The cards can be used anywhere in India. We intend to computerise the ESICs entire system connecting all our hospitals and offices across the country by next year, Labour Secretary P C Chaturvedi said. Chaturvedi was the Director General of the ESIC before he took over as the Labour Secretary earlier this month.