It may be recalled the ministry of company affairs (MCA) is implementing the Rs345-crore MCA21 project, under which all the offices of the Regisytrar of Companies (ROCs) would accept the various corporate filings in electronic form after June 2006.

The companies would interact with MCA through its portal www.mca.gov.in from where various forms would be available for downloading. The online initiative is already active in ROCs Coimbatore, New Delhi, Kochi and Pondicherry.

As the returns that are to be filed have to be signed, the MCA has mandated companies to obtain digital signature certificates from the certifying authority.

Says Shivangi Nadkarni, general manager, Sify Communications Limited, "A signature in a physical document signifies that the person has actually read the document and put his signature as an act of confirmation. There are ways to prove whether the signature is authentic or forged. On the other hand it is not so in the digital world."

Scanning a person's signature and affixing it on documents does not assure the authenticity of a document; nor is it legally binding as per the IT Act 2000. "The MCA has, therefore, made it mandatory for the authorised signatories to get the digital certificates from a Certifying Authority," says Nadkarni.

Presently there are seven designated certifying authorities in the country - Sify Communications, TCS (also the MCA21 project implementing agency), National Informatics Centre, IDRBT Certifying Authority, (n)Code Solutions, MTNL Trust Line and Customs & Central Excise.

According to her, all the certifying authorities put together have not issued more than one lakh digital signature certificates. The exporter-importer community is the one that uses digital signatures now while filing the papers with the customs authorities. "The other sectors that use the digital signatures are stock brokers, banks and insurance companies," she explains.

The MCA21 project is expected to increase the digital signature certificates manifold. According to estimates there are around seven lakh companies registered with the various ROCs. If the digital signatures for two authorised signatories are obtained per company, around 14 lakh signatures would require to be certified. Moreover, these signatures would have to be renewed at regular intervals.

Speaking about the company's plan Nadkarni says, "We are positioning ourselves as the people with the most experience in this field. We have issued over 10,000 digital signatures for the exporters-importers."

The company is holding seminars and closely interacting with company secretaries to promote its services. Sify Communications has two classes of certificates - one for individuals and the other for the corporates.

The price for certification for individuals is Rs1,995, including the USB stick and the renewal fee is Rs1,000. The rates for corporate certification would depend on the number of users.

When asked about how the company would meet the pricing differences (See box: The price for your digital signature) between the operators at the market place she responds, "Our focus is on service delivery and the strength is the robust platform. We can scale it upto one million certificates overnight. Further we provide the USB token the safe media to keep the digital signature. The signature cannot be retrieved except by the subscriber."

The price for your digital signature
TCS:	Rs 1995 plus USB token
IDRBT:	Rs 20
NIC:	Rs 400
Sify Communications:	Rs1995
(n)Code Solutions:	Rs1500
MTNL:	Rs.250 with least assurance
ICERT:	NA