Now Sign Digitally

In a major step forward on the e-Gov front, digital signature
certificates can become the authentic and legal identity of an individual

The e-Governance initiative is picking up in
India. Many PSUs and government departments have made online procurement
compulsory. This has increased the rate of phishing and hacking. This in turn
has also increased the demand for high security solutions for transactions.
Thus, the need for digital certificate based authentication and security of
network devices and users is higher.

Set up in 2004, (n)code Solutions, a division of Gujarat
Narmada Valley Fertilizer Company (GNFC), is the certifying authority licensed
by the Department of IT, Government of India for providing digital signature
certificates to individuals and organizations. In Public Key Infrastructure (PKI),
the certification authority procures digital certificates for the individuals,
organizations, and departments, which includes the public key. The private key
is generated by the user using software and is safeguarded by the user himself.
PKI, and digital signature certificates in particular are addressing security
related issues.

The project incorporated by GNFC-IT was envisioned to cater
to e-Governance in the coming years. Most of the organizations are now IT
enabled. IT security being low is one of the deterrents in setting up of a
paperless office. PKI can play a pivotal role in implementing paperless office,
as digital signature certificates are as legal as ink signatures. The setback
though is that almost all organizations have one or the other system in place.
These will take care of the IT needs of the organizations. The personnel, at
times, are also reluctant to learn any new system, which makes a path towards
PKI difficult.

PKI Objectives

(n)Code Solutions was setup to act as a licensed certifying authority of
India. The license is provided by the Controller of Certifying Authorities ( CCA
) which comes under the umbrella of the Department of Information Technology,
India. A certifying authority (CA) is an entity that provides digital signature
certificates. Under the Indian IT Act 2000 and the various rules and regulations
framed, a digital signature certificate is admissible in the Indian court of
law. A digital signature certificate, bearing the certificate of licensed CA, is
considered valid and authentic.

The primary objective of (n)Code is to issue digital
signature certificates to the citizens of India and abroad. These certificates,
once issued, become the authentic and legal digital identity of the
individual/company/web server/network device. It is these certificates that
become the core of successful and complete e-Governance. At one point of time,
e-Governance failed to jumpstart as technology had failed to solve the problems
of privacy, authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation with a single solution.
(n)Code Solutions studied the problem and laid the foundation for creating a
world-class infrastructure to enable it to master the PKI. The PKI was literally
the key to most of the problems e-Governance faced.

Thus the PKI technique was implemented with certain
objectives that included providing a solution that addresses the basic issues of
e-Governance; adding value to the e-Governance process in terms of convenience,
ease, simplicity, cost effectiveness, and transparency; setting up an
infrastructure that should cater to all and not make it necessary for the end
user to invest heavily.

The Cost Effect

It seems the recurring cost of the project is on the issuance of the digital
certificates. In the initial stages of the project, there were incidents
associated with the recurring cost that included the expense of training and
extensive support. The actual turnover rate has not yet been achieved and so the
cost effectiveness may not be quantified on each and every individual
transaction.

But as the e-Governance will pick up and the awareness of
the end users increase, the associated costs will drop drastically. Then, it
will evolve into a service sector completely and the procedures set for a smooth
distribution will be in motion. The turnover rate will increase and then, the
cost effectiveness will be high.

Also, one should keep in mind that there is a notional cost
involvement only as the project proceeds, as it will be utilizing the
infrastructure that needs just one time investment and minimum maintenance.

The project aims to facilitate e-Governance by overcoming
the present challenges. Thus, when implemented full fledgedly, the project shall
offer a high value to the users and the government by reducing its cost in
comparison to the present implementation of the same procedures.

GP
Sahu, MP Gupta

Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi and

Tanmai Mishra

Department of Physics, IIT Bombay  

mail@dqindia.com