Can MTNL make digital signatures click?

Rahul Gupta

MUMBAI: Introduced in early 2001, digital signatures has till date received a lukewarm response from all the sectors because of lack of awareness and adoption issues. Presently, there are four certifying authorities in India. The latest one to join the bandwagon is MTNL.

Riding on its 25-lakh strong customer base, MTNL has all the reasons to go in for a license to operate as a certifying authority (CA) for digital signatures. According to the company, it is planning to invest around Rs 12 crore in this initiative and expects MTNL subscribers to get a host of value added services right from recharging their pre-paid account to paying bills and so on.

One reason behind this initiative of MTNL is that it wants to hold onto its subscriber base by providing hands on experience to the newer technologies as it is losing out its subscriber base to other private operators because of technological issues.


The four certifying authorities in India include SafeScrypt, which was the first certifying authority in India, TCS, NIC and IDBRT. The motive behind making government bodies like NIC and IDBRT certifying authorities was to enable government departments to bring in the culture of paperless office and thus provide a much needed boost to the e-governance initiatives.


However, adoption of digital signatures in government departments is almost negligible. Only some nationalized banks have shown some interest in the adoption of this technology and that too because of competitive pressure as digital signatures were gaining grounds in private banks like ICICI and HDFC. But since MTNL is going to be the new CA for digital signatures, the future of digital signatures in terms of adoption and bringing business to books looks bright.


None of the sectors in India have taken a uniform approach to regulate the business use of digital signatures. Digital electronic signatures are now legal but not binding on anyone and unless and until this binding won’t happen, the adoption of the technology will remain an unfulfilled dream.


(CNS)