The Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) is implementing one of the largest e-governance projects, the MCA21. Four Registrar of Companies (RoC) have gone live with the project, and in the next couple of months companies across the country willbe required to file documents online with RoCs in compliance with the statutory provisions of the Act.
The Rs 345-crore project implementation commenced with a contract to Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
And digital signature certificates will play a vital role in the project, says Shivangi Nadkarni, General Manager, SafeScrypt Certifying Authority Services from Sify Communications Ltd (a subsidiary of Sify Ltd).
In an interview to eWorld she discusses the project and the business opportunity for the company. Excerpts: What is the focus of the project?
The project envisages electronic filing of documents by an interactive and paperless process through the Internet. It also includes interlinking of all the offices of RoCs and the Ministry. The project has been designed to eliminate physical interface between companies and the RoC and bring a balance between trade facilitation on the one hand and enforcement requirement on the other. RoCs in Kochi, Coimbatore, Pondicherry and Delhi have gone live, and by April end the rest of the RoCs will go live.
What is a digital signature?
In the world of digital signatures, the concerns described are often referred to as PAIN — Privacy (or confidentiality), Authentication, Integrity and Non-repudiation. Digital signatures help companies to address the concerns of PAIN and in a manner that is legally binding. The technology behind digital signature is PKI (public key infrastructure), which uses cryptography (the science of scrambling data such that only authorised parties can read it) and related technologies to help solve each day business concerns such as PAIN.
What is the role of digital signatures in the project?
The project requires all authorised signatories of companies to digitally sign the documents (that they were so far physically signing) and upload the same onto the MCA21 portal. And since these are to be signed via digital certificates from licensed CAs (certification authority), they would be considered equivalent to the physical signatures.
Can digital certificates purchased for MCA21 be used to digitally sign any other document?
Yes. These certificates are valid signature certificates in India and can be used for digitally signing any document and form in regular business processes. In fact, using this facility in day-to-day business can help companies to reduce costs associated with paperwork and also enhance business processes.
How can the RoC be sure that the confidential documents it deals with, which are to be available for the scrutiny of only authorised people, remain confidential even in the new digital scenario?
In the physical world, the RoC would probably store the documents in a secure area, provide limited access to a small set of people and keep certain documents sealed, if required. It would have a reasonable control over who can physically access what - and if someone did get past this system, at least there would be some evidence.
For example, if someone tried to physically break in, there would be some evidence of the break-in and the tampering. However, in the digital world, it is not only relatively simple to access data that is in storage, but it is also difficult to find out if the same has been copied or even viewed.
What does this project mean to your company?It offers a phenomenal business opportunity. With about seven lakh registered companies, we are looking at about 20 lakh digital signatures to be offered. So far seven CAs have issued less than one lakh digital signatures, and there is a huge market in front of us. Safescrypt offers a one-year certification for Rs 1,995, including a USB stick and the renewal fee is Rs 1,000. The two-year package is Rs 2,600. The company has so far issued about 20,000 digital certificates.
Autor: Raja Simhan T E
Quelle: The Hindu Business Line, 01.05.2006
