Digital Signature Certificate, an Online Identity of any person to sign various documents. A Digital Signature Certificate contains various fields from persons personal information like name, e-mail id, state , company name ( if applicable), country name and many more. Under IT Act, 2000 Digital Signature Certificate is mainly categorised into three classes. Class 3 is the most secured and highest level of Certificate. Class 3 Digital Signature is basically can be issued to an Individual OR Company with authorization. Other than Class 3, Class 1 & Class 2 are also important types of classes.

Any Individual OR Company Authorized User can obtain Class 3 DSC. An Individual Person requires his ID & Address Proof along with a Dully Complete Application Form to obtain Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate. On the Other hand, Company Authorized User need to submit Company’s legal documents like Company PAN Card, Company Registration Certificate, List of Partners or Directors, Authorization Letter in favour of Applicant other than his person ID & Address Proof. In both Cases, Applicant needs to present himself in RA or CA Office to verify his physical presence.

Under Government’s e-Governance Program, Ministry of Information Technology introduced concept of Digital Signature Certificates for various purposes. One of them is e-Tendering OR e-Procurement. In Earlier Days, Manual Tenders were non-transparent and full of scams. It was also very time consuming process. To make it transparent, fast and at par , e-Tendering get introduced. Like wise, e-Procurement, e-Bidding and e-Auction were also get started under e-Governance Project. Today, Due to e-Tendering Vendors from Other Countries are also interested to take part and want to expand their business in India.

•   Class of DSC : Class 3
  


•   Type of Certificate : Signing & Encryption
  


•   Validity of DSC : Minimum 1 Years & 3 Years Maximum
  


•   User Types : Individual User
  


•   Bits of DSC : 2048 Bit
  


•   Algorithm of DSC : SHA 2
  


•   Storage of DSC : ON FIPS Certified Cryptographic USB Tokens