e-Governance: Soon, SMSs to be allowed as docu proof

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: An online authentication project of the Union government would enable SMSs to be used as documentary proof for various registrations and payments. 
    The project, which has been in the core development stage for the past six months, is likely to be rolled out by June next year. This could be a big step towards e-authentication services in the country. 
    “Look at how the railways have done it. When you are travelling, your PNR code on SMS is valid proof instead of the paper. We need more services along the same lines,” said J Satyanarayana, secretary of the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY). He was speaking at an event for an overview of the national mobile governance initiative on Monday. The DeitY is an agency of the ministry of communication and information technology. The SMS authentication is part of the e-Pramaan project, which has an overall outlay of Rs 23 crore. 
    The levels of authentication will vary from user ID and passwords to biometric authentication, depending on the level of security required for these services. 
    Officials see a roadblock before these services take off in their entirety — the legal recognition of SMSs. Satyanarayana suggested bringing them under the IT Act. 
    “For mobile messages to be accepted for commercial and legal purposes, they need to have a legal status. For example, if you have a caste certificate with a code on SMS, it should be acceptable,” he said, pointing out that there are currently around 950 million mobile subscriptions in the country.


Source::: The Times of India, 24-12-2013, p.6,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/12/24&PageLabel=6&EntityId=Ar00604&ViewMode=HTML