India is one of the select bands of nations that have the Digital Signature Legislation in place. Information Technology Act, 2000 and Indian Evidence Act grants digital signatures that have been issued by a licensed Certifying Authority (Like TCS, ncode, emudhra, Sify, mtnl) in India the same status as a physical signature. Digital signatures solutions is deployed via the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology
A digital signature is an electronic signature that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or the signer of a document, and possibly to ensure that the original content of the message or document that has been sent is unchanged. Digital signatures cannot be imitated by someone else, and can be automatically time-stamped. The ability to ensure that the original signed message arrived means that the sender cannot easily repudiate it later. A digital signature can be used with any kind of message, whether it is encrypted or not, simply so that the receiver can be sure of the sender's identity and that the message arrived intact.
A digital certificate is an electronic "credit card" that establishes your credentials when doing business or other transactions on the Web. It is issued by a certification authority (CA). In India licensed CAs providing digital signature solutions are – Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, (n)Code Solutions Ltd., (A division of Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Company Ltd.), e-Mudhra CA, Safescrypt, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), MTNL and National Informatics Centre, Customs & Central Excise.
Digital Signature contains your name, a serial number, expiration dates, a copy of the certificate holder's public key (used for encrypting messages and digital signatures), and the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority and the digital signature of comptroller of certifying authority of India who have granted license to certifying authority to issue legally valid digital signature in India so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real. A digital certificate contains the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that anyone can verify that the certificate is real.
CCA has pre defined the content of Digital Signature issued by the licensed CA in India to provide uniform digital signature solutions.