India’s ESI (Employee State Insurance) Corporation has announced that it will soon be issuing smart cards to provide employees with health and medical benefits, among others, to employees who fall under the care of ESI. Currently, the ESI oversees the care of about 9 million employees and 30 million beneficiaries all across India.

Providing healthcare smart cards to these employees and their families would help streamline the healthcare process. Data about an individual’s healthcare history and special needs would be universally accessible from the smart card. Currently, ESI Corporation covers employees and their families in 21 of India’s 28 states and legislative regions, and the smart card program promises to blanket India with a new, more efficient kind of health care technology.