Date:04/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/08/04/stories/2004080401830700.htm

Back MTNL gets CA licence

Moumita Bakshi

New Delhi , Aug. 3

THE Controller of Certifying Authorities has granted a licence to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to issue digital signature certificates for electronic authentication of users, thus taking the overall tally of Certifying Authorities (CAs) in the country to six.

"MTNL has been issued a Certifying Authorities (CA) licence on July 14, 2004," Deputy CCA, Dr K.K. Bajaj, told Business Line.

Besides MTNL, Customs and Central Excise Department was issued a CA licence recently. Other licence holders are Safescrypt, TCS, IDRBT and NIC. The CCA now has only one pending application, that of Gujarat Narmada Fertiliser Corporation (GNFC).

Asked if issuance of more and more CA licences would pave the way for expansion of the digital signatures market in India, he said that CCA had not done any survey to establish the size of the market.

"The market expansion will depend on applications for e-commerce and e-governance. Also, typically most of the CA licence holders focus on niche segments. For instance, IDRBT focuses on banking and NIC works in Government space. TCS and Safescrypt, however, are in the general segment," he pointed out.

Digital signatures signatures are now accepted at par with handwritten signatures and the electronic documents digitally signed are treated at par with paper document