Gemalto has won the BearingPoint innovation management award – the Agile Innovation Award – for its think tank initiative Business Innovation Garage (BIG).

BIG provides Gemalto’s 10,000 employees company-wide with a structured process to submit and manage any innovative ideas they have. Ideas covering range of fields – from communication, payment, transport, Internet access, and machine-to-machine application – are systematically challenged, audited, developed and eventually selectively turned into incubation cells.

After a nearly three-year delay, the Algerian government has finally launched its biometric passport program.

Magharebia reports that the biometric passports, which contain a contactless smart card chip that holds a digitized photo, fingerprints and signature, were supposed to be released in 2009. But the documents were delayed due to complexities with the operation of the project and the need to thoroughly research and analyze other countries’ experiences with biometric passports.