ET: What are the sectors in India where RFID has found takers, (tagging of livestock?)?
Venkat:We find RFID deployments in the most unusual and unexpected places. We find them tracking people and assets, cattle and tree identification, electronic cash and so on. While cost consideration has forced a delay in item level tagging, the technology has been successfully serving other applications.
Some of the key RFID applications of growth in the next 18-24 months are:
Customer loyalty and identification
Library management (books, electronic media etc.)
File/document tracking
Asset management (IT/non-IT assets, industrial assets like cylinders and containers etc.)
Parking and vehicle management
Work in progress
Inventory and warehouse management
ET: Could you share with us, how much of the Gemini Traze deployments are there in India and in what sectors? Before answering that could you also elucidate upon the company as well?
Venkat:We have deployed our products in over 250 deployments in industrial and manufacturing, government and defence, educational instituitions, IT/ITeS and banking services.
Now coming to your question of sharing more about the company, Gemini TRAZE RFID Pvt Ltd is a RFID product design and manufacturing company involved in providing products and solutions for diverse RFID applications. It is the first company in India to manufacture and market Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based tags, readers and antennas under the brand name 'TRAZE'.
We recently set up a tag manufacturing facility, the first-of-its-kind in India to manufacture passive RFID tags. The facility manufactures ISO 15693, 14443 and Gen 2 compliant tags that are marketed worldwide. The initiative is likely to lower the tag cost and enhance RFID adoption. This is a fully automated manufacturing facility with manufacturing capacity of 100 mn tags annually.
ET: Retail is all set for a big-time investment in India. How do you see this boosting the RFID demand?
Venkat:Globally, retail has been a major driver for RFID, and we believe that India is no exception. RFID in the retail sector has obvious business benefits for both the retailer and consumers. Moreover with India catching up with the global retail trends, RFID is the next logical step for Indian retailers to stay competitive. The Indian retail industry has seen an unprecedented shift and growth in the business operations in the past few years. Demanding customers and best practices adopted by global retail giants are driving Indian retailers to harness technology and IT in bringing efficiencies and retaining consumers.
Before the advent of RFID, retailers have been quite content in using conventional Auto-id technologies like barcodes. These technologies had inherent limitations to scale as the business grows. One of the challenging aspects of retail business is supply chain visibility and control along with customer identification and management.
RFID offers complete visibility of a retail supply chain. This visibility leads to better control and management of the chain thereby reducing costly mark downs due to excess inventory. Moreover, it helps the retailer stay abreast of competition by able to adapt to the changing retail trends and customer demands. RFID has the potential to offer convenience to customers enhancing their shopping experience. This helps retailers retain and manage customers effectively and individually. RFID is all set to transform the way business is done and conducted in the retail space and most importantly change the way a consumer shops.
ET: Do you have collaborations with industry players? Please share with us the nature of association?
Venkat:We have technology collaborations with Texas Instruments, NXP, Intel, Impinj and SAP.
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