Mr Ravi Krishnamoorthi, director- business development, while talking about the association, said that the alliance is based on an understanding between the two companies to complement each others' strengths in capturing the emerging market of e-governance. The tie-up does not involve any financial stake and the volume and extent of participation from the each company in joint projects will be decided on case to case basis, he added.

"EDS and Shonkh and mutually complementing each other in their services and product portfolios. With its array of citizen-interface products and services and its experience of having implemented government projects, Shonkh was the obvious choice for EDS." On the other hand, EDS will bring to the table the global expertise and the domain knowledge of having worked in similar government projects worldwide, he added.

The associations is expected to identify, plan, architect, implement, and deliver in India, in the sectors of focus, which would include the vertical segments of finance, industry, utilities, and the government.

Mr Krishnamoorthi said that the two companies will review the business plans every three months to decide about the future joint projects and the extent of participation from both the partners in them.

According to Mr Krishnamoorthi, the Shonkh-EDS team has already begun the work of identifying focus areas, estimating projects outlays and have even prioritised certain critical project for working together. "3-4 projects have already been identified and presentations given. The projects include large projects like Citizen ID for Indian citizens, PIO cards for Non Resident Indians etc. Other projects include, Indpass - a fast track clearance system for frequent international travellers."

These projects provide a lot of synergy between the products and services of both the companies, as Shonkh specialises in providing solutions revolving around the optical cards, which was considered to be the world's most counterfeit-proof cards," said Mr Krishnamoorthi.

Shonkh is also setting up a software development facility with an investment of around Rs 60 crore in Gurgaon to cater to the requirement of the projects garnered through joint efforts, He said adding that the facility will be owned and funded by Shonkh only.

Shonkh Technologies is engaged in e-governance solutions with a product portfolio, which includes kiosks, smart card based solutions, optical card based solutions, multi-lingual software services and products.

EDS is engaged in IT Service and e-governance software solutions, having offices situated across the globe in about 52 countries. It has a yearly sales revenue of around USD 20 billion.