In 2009, when the concept of Aadhaar was conceived in India, it was estimated that more than 30% of the population in the country were not possessing a proper identity document. With wide spread and acceptance of the concept, presently the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has generated more than 138 crore Aadhaar numbers as on December 2023, with a coverage of nearly 100% of the present adult population providing a unique identity.
The seed for Aadhaar was laid way back in the year 2006, when Government of India initiated a project titled ‘Unique Identification for BPL Families. It got matured through various processes and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) started functioning as an attached office of the then Planning Commission (present NITI Aayog) in 2009. The first UID number was issued on 29 September 2010 to a resident of Maharashtra. In 2016, The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was converted to a statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (“Aadhaar Act 2016”).
Aadhaar and its platform provided many benefits to Governments as well as residents such as dissemination of welfare schemes in a transparent and efficient manner, single source of offline/online identity verification across the country for the residents etc. In line with suit of benefits, Government of India launched a new concept of online electronic signature framework leveraging the electronic authentication provided by Aadhaar eKYC in the year 2015. Prior to this Digital Signatures Certificates (DSC) issued by authorised Certifying Authorities (CA) in hardware dongle was the only option to have a digital signature, which requires physical paper verification process for issue and renewal of certificates during the time. Also involved carrying of physical dongle for any electronic signing.
e-Sign is an online electronic signature service that can be integrated with service delivery applications to facilitate an Aadhaar holder to digitally sign a document based on OTP or Biometric (Fingerprint/Iris) authentication through Aadhaar e-KYC service.
The advantages of Aadhaar based e-Sign includes:
- Easy and secure way to digitally sign information anywhere, anytime using Aadhaar e-KYC service.
- Facilitates legally valid signatures to all Aadhaar holders
- Flexible and easy to implement – e-Sign provides authentication in line with Aadhaar e-KYC service (both biometric and OTP).
- Ensures privacy
- e-Sign services are facilitated by trusted and empanelled e-Sign service Providers – ESPs. Presently there are 18 ESPs empanelled with the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India.
The introduction of Aadhaar based e-Sign literally opened an avenue to have digital signature to every citizen in the country, through his/her Aadhaar and linked mobile (or biometrics) at their own convenience. Aadhaar e-Sign has transformed the concept of digital signatures in India, making it accessible to a massive population, catalysing the financial inclusion efforts of governments, bridging the digital divide and enabling smooth transformation in digital ecosystem across various sectors including banking, Healthcare, Governance etc.
Data courtesy: www.uidai.gov.in; www.cca.gov.in and DeitY, GoI annual report (2015-16)
