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Vipin V. Nair

NEW DELHI, Jan. 28

DIGITAL signatures, supposed to boost e-commerce by making transactions more secure, have been slow to take off in India despite the Government providing legal and technical infrastructure, but recent trends suggest that a surge in their use is about to happen.

"I am not very happy (about the numbers), but we will try to make the best of it in 2003," says Mr K.N. Gupta, Controller of Digital Signature Certifying Authorities.

Mr Gupta, who had earlier hoped that there would be about a million digital certificates in India by now, blames the slowdown in the information technology sector, lack of awareness and non-availability of software applications for the slow adoption of digital signatures in India.

The Government has licensed four certifying authorities (CAs) to issue digital signatures in India. They are National Informatics Centre (NIC), Institute of Development and Research of Banking Technology (IDRBT), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and SafeScrypt.

According to Mr K. Dasaratharaman, Managing Director of SafeScrypt, a Satyam Infoway subsidiary and the first CA in the country, his company has issued only 5,000-10,000 digital signatures so far, mostly to corporates.

The total number of e-signatures issued in India may not be much higher than this number since the other three CAs are yet to launch operations in a big way.

"But I expect this industry in India to be worth Rs 50-100 crore in the next three years," he told Business Line here. "Banks and others are going to insist on digital signatures to carry out online transactions. And with numbers growing, the cost of acquiring a digital signature will also come down to a few hundred rupees."

Developments such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India permitting brokers to send online contract notes authenticated by digital signatures, the move to amend the Negotiable Instruments Act to approve electronic cheques and admissibility of e-transactions and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade becoming digital signature-enabled would give a fillip to the use of e-signatures in the country.

Currently an individual can get a digital signature at prices starting from about Rs 750. The cost will go up on the basis of security features encrypted on the e-sign. The validity of an e-sign will be for a year, and it needs to be renewed thereafter.

Mr Dasaratharaman said the country's large software firms should come forward to develop more software applications enabling the use of digital signatures for e-commerce.

"India today has world class connectivity, but digital signatures are of no use without enough applications," he lamented.

Also, e-commerce portals, credit card issuers and banks do not now insist that online consumers should have a digital signature to carry out transactions. But in the near future, e-signatures may become a prerequisite for buying and selling on the Internet.

Mr Gupta said he would initiate more steps to spread awareness about digital signatures. "Recently I gave a presentation before the judicial community and they are very upbeat on the use of e-signatures," he said, adding similar campaigns would be launched to initiate more people to the use of digital signatures.

He also indicated that more CAs would be appointed this year.

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