The Hindu Business Line : `Banks yet to obtain digital signatures in a big way'

Do you know that in MCA21, MCA is for the Ministry of Company Affairs, and that 21 stands for the twenty-first century? The MCA21 program is a mammoth e-governance project. It builds on "the Government of India vision to introduce a service-oriented approach in the design and delivery of Government services, establish a healthy business ecosystem and make the country globally competitive," as declares www.mca.gov.in.

To know more, Business Line posed a few questions to Mr R. Vasudevan, Regional Director, MCA, Chennai.

To what extent have digital certificates been used by corporates/professionals/banks and financial institutions?

From September 16, the Ministry has made filing of documents with digital signature compulsory. Since the launching of MCA21 in February, the Ministry was accepting documents by applying the digital signature of the authorised staff of the Ministry. Now that sufficient time has been given to the corporate public, the Ministry has taken the decision to go ahead with implementing compulsory e-filing of documents.

Generally, the acceptance among the company representatives for the usage of digital signature has been quite encouraging. Many of the top corporates have resorted to virtual filing of documents from their own offices.

From the information received, the banks are yet to obtain digital signatures in a big way. However, as the portal has been clearly indicating that compulsory e-filing would come into force from September 16, banks too may start using digital signature shortly.

Any estimates about the percentage of e-filing currently happening through the virtual front office, that is, the Internet?

As such, no statistics are available as to the percentage of documents filed through virtual front offices and the facilitation centres set up by the Ministry.

How do you find the usage of certified filing centres (CFCs) to be? Is the idea catching up?

The concept of CFC is yet to catch up. According to the information received from some of the CFCs, there is not much difference between the CFC filing the documents and a registered user uploading the documents using the infrastructure indicated.

Is the MCA contemplating special arrangements to handle the peak e-filing season in all locations?

The Ministry is all set to handle the peak season load of filing of documents during October-December. We are in the process of setting up of temporary filing offices to handle the peak season filing needs. In fact, the new-look MCA21 portal has a separate corner for annual filing of documents.

How has the DCA handled the change management process internally, to implement MCA21?

It is very heartening to note that the staff and officers of the Ministry have taken up MCA21 in their stride. The staff and officers are fully trained and are handling the work with ease and comfort.

Are there plans to extend the scope of MCA21 to cover liquidators' office, court cases and so on?

The proposal is yet to take a concrete shape and be finalised.

Do you communicate to the public the ongoing changes in the MCA21 system?

Ongoing changes in the MCA21 system are communicated through the portal from time to time.

What is the future road map for MCA21?

A bright path ahead. MCA21 will be a model for other e-governance projects of the Government. At the Ministry, the MCA21 is being evolved and modified from time to time keeping in mind the comfort of the stakeholders. The Ministry is open for suggestions from the stakeholders. **D.M.

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`Banks yet to obtain digital signatures in a big way'