At the Threshold

Without real world awareness technologies, companies must use manual
processes to keep the information chain up in sync with the product chain.
Often, this results in human errors and inaccurate data. RFID allows systems to
collect data instantaneously using an automated network of RFID tags on products
and readers at important locations, leading to increased automation at multiple
levels of the technology infrastructure.

In traditional export sectors like textiles and apparel, RFID can be used to
strengthen the bonds that the Indian suppliers have forged with their customers
in the US and Europe through enhanced information sharing using RFID. With this,
a great deal of the supply chain and inventory carrying costs can be reduced,
clearly making us competitive in the global market. In fact, it is highly likely
that in the next 12 months or so, leading retail customers of Indian exporters
will insist that their shipments be RFID-enabled.

Similarly, India's manufacturing sector could leverage RFID for process
automation and quality management. The consumer retail sector is leading the
RFID adoption path and has initiated several pilot programs in the last few
years to evaluate the business value of RFID. In the healthcare arena, RFID can
be used to improve workflow management, patient data management, and so on. It
is not inconceivable that over the next few years, we can eliminate the need for
patients to stand in interminably long lines at hospitals, just to collect lab
reports or fix appointments with doctors. RFID can also play a major role in
implementing and furthering e-governance.

RFID can be of significant strategic value to India in many sectors:

• Improving the complex distribution and supply system for
  the Indian Defense operations

• Improving the complex distribution and supply of food
  supplies as a part of the public distribution system (PDS)

• Improving the complex tracking and distribution
  operations of the Indian Postal Service

• Enforceing Terrorism Prevention Laws at both state and
  federal level

• Improving the tracking, logistics and planning operations
  of Indian Railways

• Improve the tracking, logistics and planning operations
  of State Public Transport Agencies

• Implementing automatic toll collection on the vast
  network of highways being constructed across India

The IT industry too can be a major beneficiary of the RFID
boom. And I do not mean only IT services providers that will be at the forefront
of providing RFID solutions and systems integration services. The Indian
hardware industry can also capitalize on the RFID revolution and emerge as the
pre-eminent manufacturer in the world. This may well prove to be an especially
attractive opportunity because the high cost of tags and readers remains a
significant hurdle to RFID adoption. India therefore has the opportunity to
leverage its high level of technical skills with its lower-cost manufacturing
capabilities to be at the forefront of a virtually new segment of IT hardware.

Therefore, RFID does have the potential to touch our lives in
myriad ways and we are indeed at the threshold of another major revolution.
However, to realize the tremendous transformative potential, a lot of new ground
needs to be covered. Similarly, we can perhaps leapfrog directly to the superior
RFID, since our current adoption of conventional means of automatic
identification like barcodes is relatively lower.

Kris Gopalakrishnan,
COO and deputy managing director, Infosys technologies