Ahmedabad firm to launch facial recognition tool for cattle insurers

Ahmedabad, Jan 31 (IANS) An Ahmedabad-based company will soon launch what it claims to be the first-ever integrated device system for cattle identification for insurance purposes.

Using facial recognition and Iris scanner, the company, Mantra, will launch this product which will not only help reduce fraudulent claims, but will also be helpful in wildlife conservation and animal identification in the future.

"After being asked by various cattle and animal insurance companies, we have developed an integrated system using facial recognition devices and Iris scanner to identify cattle like cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, camels etc. In a couple of months we will be ready with the prototype," Avneet Dwivedi, the marketing manager of Mantra, told IANS.

According to Dwivedi, the insurance companies were troubled with many fraudulent claims by the cattle owners who presented other animals than the ones they actually own to make claims. It was difficult to establish the fraudulent practices.

"This will be for the first time in the country or probably anywhere else in the world where cattle will be identified by Iris detection and facial recognition based devices."

"The face of a human being and that of an animal are entirely different so we had to specifically design the hardware and the software for this particular system. We are hopeful that the product will not only benefit our clients, the insurance companies, but also will be helpful in wildlife conservation and animal identification," another senior official of Mantra said.

Mantra says it is the fastest growing company in the biometric and RFID (radio-frequency identification) market with a growth rate of 50 per cent compared to the annual growth rate of the industry at 18 per cent in the country.

"The global market of the RFID detection systems is $30 billion annually. Last year, our company's turnover was Rs 200 crore and we are hoping it to grow as there is a large market in India as well as developing countries," said Hiren Bhandari, the Founding Director of Mantra.

According to Mantra officials there is only 5 per cent penetration of the total market as it's a growing industry.

"The entire security industry is to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore, of which biometrics consists of only Rs 1,500 crore. Mantra leads the industry with almost 50 per cent of the market," said Bhandari.

Mantra is also the pioneer of Aadhar and its biometric devices are currently being used by the Indian government for social welfare schemes and also by the telecom and banking sectors for KYC purposes.

The company is also developing an integrated device system based on fingerprint biometrics and behavioural biometrics, he said.

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