About SCOSTA

The Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application (SCOSTA) is the operating system standard that was developed in 2002 for contact smart cards on the request of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The standards are absolutely generic and are deployment-ready for all kinds of Identity applications like Driving License/Registration Card(DL/RC), Citizen ePassport, ID card, PDS card, RSBY Card, etc. The SCOSTA operating system for Smart Cards was developed in a dedicated and collaborative effort of NIC, IIT Kanpur  and the Smart Card industry. It is based on ISO-7816 standards and therefore, complies with any international requirements. As on date, more than thirty major national and international industry players have adopted these standards into their Smart Card products and are selling in the national and international market. Subsequently, SCOSTA-CL was developed in the year 2007 as per ISO 7816/ICAO/MRTD 9303 standards. The SCOSTA-CL (Contactless) cards were used in the issuance of e-passports of officials/diplomats as a pilot project.