South Africa’s transport authorities are re-tendering for a next-generation physical driving licence card, with the stated intention of migrating the credential to a polycarbonate (PC) substrate, at the same time as introducing a digital equivalent under the MyMzansi programme.

Over the weekend of 18-19 April 2026, Beijing staged its second ‘Human and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon’. According to Reuters, more than 300 humanoid robots took part alongside, but segregated from, 12,000 humans.

The ID4Africa AGM 2026 (12-15 May) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, set out to move the conversation from deploying digital public infrastructure to the work of running national ID as a full-life system.

German polymer manufacturer, Covestro, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China’s EMPTECH to co-develop high-security identity document solutions. The partnership targets passports, national ID cards and driving licences. According to the companies, the purpose of the partnership is to improve the fit between substrate behaviour, security-feature integration and personalisation process control.

On 15 April 2026, the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) introduced a new foreign nationals identity document (type W) for applicants awaiting a decision on a temporary or permanent asylum residence permit. The credential enables holders to prove identity, nationality and lawful stay in the Netherlands, while supporting rapid first-line checks in operational environments.

Australia is stepping up its response to identity crime through the Credential Protection Register (CPR), a national capability designed to stop stolen or compromised identity document details being misused in everyday verification checks.

On 15 April 2026, the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) introduced a new Foreign Nationals identity document (type W) for applicants awaiting a decision on a temporary or permanent asylum residence permit. The credential enables holders to prove identity, nationality and lawful stay in the Netherlands, while supporting rapid first-line checks in operational environments.

It’s been 10 years since LASINK™ was introduced into the ID and secure document market. In this technical feature celebrating the impact of the technology, IN Groupe takes a look at what LASINK™ has achieved in improving secure colour portraiture.

This is probably not the most attention-grabbing title for an editorial, but for a while I worked at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, where part of the lab’s job is supporting standards work through the British Standards Institution (BSI). That experience left me with two impressions about metrology.

On 7 March 2026, India Security Press (ISP), Nashik, marked its centenary with a series of commemorative events, including the inauguration of the Shatabdi Dwar (Centenary Gate) and Shatabdi Udyaan (Centenary Garden), as well as the release of a commemorative postage stamp. While the occasion marked 100 years of history, the stamp signalled more than a mere milestone; it underscored a technological pivot within one of Asia’s key security printing institutions.

A Cayman Islands holding company has issued a statement saying it has developed two ‘practical’ quantum identity authentication schemes based on Grover’s quantum search algorithm. MicroCloud Hologram Inc (NASDAQ: HOLO) describes one scheme intended for environments with a trusted third party (TTP) and a second scheme designed to operate without a third party, for more decentralised applications.

Counterfeiters are no longer limited to simple print and overlay methods to make counterfeit security features. High-resolution imaging, better foils, and wider access to precision tooling mean that many familiar ‘tilt effects’ can be imitated well enough to pass quick, first-line checks—especially on identity cards and passport datapages where the attack is aimed at the portrait and personal data.

The technical committee for the Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference, taking place 25-27 January 2027, in Berlin, Germany, is issuing a final reminder for technical paper submissions. The deadline for submissions is Friday 1 May 2026, and the response so far has been strong with many high-quality abstracts already received.

Global travel is not just growing; it is outpacing the infrastructure designed to support it.

Rwanda’s Information Society Authority (RISA) has launched a procurement for a ‘Single Digital ID Card Printing and Personalisation System and related consumables’ under the Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project.

A new paper from digital rights group epicenter.works takes an engineering-centred look at the European Commission’s draft eIDAS implementing acts for the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet.

A Cayman Islands holding company has issued a statement saying it has developed two ‘practical’ quantum identity authentication schemes based on Grover’s quantum search algorithm. MicroCloud Hologram Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLO) describes one scheme intended for environments with a trusted third party (TTP) and a second scheme designed to operate without a third party, for more decentralised applications.

Designing next-generation identity documents requires more than layering security features. It requires structured engineering decisions that balance optical security, structural integrity, personalization technologies, and forensic resilience.

Madagascar has begun collecting citizens’ biometric data as the first operational step toward issuing new digital identity cards under the Civil Registration and Identification Reform (RECI) programme, implemented with support from the World Bank. Enrolment centres have opened in parts of the capital, Antananarivo, including a site at the University of Antananarivo, where residents aged 18 and over can register.

A new policy brief led by Europol under the EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security examines how biometric performance is independently evaluated in Europe and what technical building blocks would be needed to establish an EU-run capability comparable to the large-scale programmes operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US.