Indian economy going digital, shouldn't your Business too?

With the advent of demonetization of currency notes, a lot of things are undergoing a change in Indian economy. Streetside vendors accepting online payments, people preferring card payments instead of cash. Cashless payment is no longer a luxury,  it's becoming a necessity. Here few things are changing, the behavior of the consumer, the govt policy overpayments / digital transaction, the way banking system used by the common man. There are plenty of reasons why  NOW is the right time for businesses to embrace digital technologies. Following are the main points why it should be done now.

How Aadhaar Esign and Ekyc made Reliance Jio the fastest growing company?

Reliance Jio is growing exponentially. As of date, it has already reached 1.5 core customers in a month's time. No company in India has grown this fast. Per day they are signing up 5 Lakhs plus customers. There are several reasons for this growth, but the most important is the way they made use of the Aadhaar platform. The two most important things that made this possible are below.

How an Enterprise can start using Aadhaar ESign?

In this blog, we are going to explain possible options enterprise have to start using ESign and the pros and cons of each way.

Aadhaar eSign is a Govt. of India approved digital signing service that uses Aadhaar data of the Aadhaar holder to sign digital documents without using any other software. Financial organizations like banks, stock brokers, insurance companies etc. stand the make significant gains by implementing eSign solutions. With eSign, these organization will now be able to make full utilization of their web and mobile infrastructure for providing services to their customers.

The possible options are as below.

Now Aadhaar holder have option to block his Aadhaar card

Did you know that individual aadhaar holder has the option to block his Aadhaar card?  As Aadhaar card is a voluntary card, it also enables Aadhaar holders to block or unblock their Aadhaar card data including personal and biometric data. The option was introduced a while back following opposition from activists who stated that it did not give persons the choice to de-register once they enrolled. Individuals also have the option to update information in Aadhaar card via Aadhaar update portal or Akshaya centers.

How to secure your AngularJS application?

Securing your AngularJS application is always a concern for developers. Being a JavaScript framework, most of the things are done on the client side and thus people viewing the Source of the page usually get to know the business logic flow, security tokens, keys etc unless you took care of it.

Finahub has developed an Aadhaar ESign application which had gone through several rounds of security audits. We have used AngularJS as the front end framework, we have done many things to make sure our application is secure in every aspect. So we thought of sharing our experience with other fellow developers. Following are the security risks that may affect an Angular app and the solutions to each of them.

Digital signature an introduction

We are starting a series about digital signature and how organizations can take advantage of using it. This is our first article on this topic.

A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for ensuring the authenticity of a digital message or document. If a document is digitally signed, it ensures that it is signed by a specific person. The person who signed cannot deny the authenticity of the document. Usually, organizations keep their documents as papers which are signed by people with ink, or they save them digitally by scanning these papers.
In our country(India) Digital signature has legal validity so that it can be employed in many areas where signed documents are to be saved. The digital signature can be effectively employed in customer onboarding especially companies in the financial sector. Please note that digital signatures are not valid in every scenario. To know more about where the digital signature can and cannot be used, please refer our blog post.

World Bank wants to take Aadhaar Global

The real success of Aadhaar got the attention of world bank. Aadhar is being used for various subsidy programmes and is saving a lot of money for the government.
Seeing and understanding the real benefits of a unique id is making the world bank advise other countries to come up with similar strategies. We feel this as a recognition to Govt of India for this well-crafted idea and precise execution.

Key highlights of Aadhaar ecosystem is as below.

• More than one billion people have their Aadhaar now
• Cost of issuing one Aadhar ID was less than $1
• Supports token-less authentication, anytime, anywhere
• Saves approx y $1 billion (Rs 6500 crores) a year by reducing corruption and leakage for the Indian government
• Every Enterprise, both govt and private can make use of Aadhaar ecosystem.

Where digital signatures (including Aadhaar eSign) can and cannot be used?

In India, the Information Technology Act 2000, gives digital signatures the legal validity as a signature at par with physical signatures. Digital signatures enable digitization of processes making them more efficient and convenient for all parties involved. Until recently digital signatures have been used by a very limited set of people for a very limited set of activities. This is because digital signatures have been seen as a complicated piece of technology that required the use of specialized software tools and process for its work. This has kept the technology from getting mass adoption even though it has immense potential.

All this is going to change with the advent of Aadhaar based eSign technology that enables any Aadhaar holder to do a digital signature without having to install any software or purchase any signature/certificate from a certifying agency. A digital signature can be placed on a document by just an Aadhaar authentication using biometric authentication methods or by OTP.  

This is a great opportunity for businesses in India to digitize their process and take advantage of the operational efficiency and cost effectiveness offered by using fully digital processes. Businesses will have to look at the processes that are ideally suited for the use of digital signatures without causing a legal fallout. This brings us to our question, are there cases in which digital signatures cannot be used? 

UIDAI relaxes eligibility criteria for entitties to get KUA / AUA registration

UIDAI relaxes eligibility criteria for entities to get KUA (Kyc User Agency)  /AUA (Authentication User agency) registration with the latest notification dated January 28, 2016. This makes onboarding as KUA /AUA easier for many regulated entities. Earlier many regulated entities were not included in Category 2 (Regulated Service Providers), so only entities with lots of customer base and turnover were able to become KUA. Now with this new changes following type of regulated entities too were included in category 2 for easy access for KUA registration.

• All types of Banks including Payment Banks, Small Finance Banks, and Non-Scheduled Urban co-operative banks
• NBFC 's (Non-Banking Financial Company)
• Regulated by CCA - Certifying authority
• Regulated by CCA - Digital Locker providers
• Regulated by CCA - E-Sign Providers
• Regulated by SEBI - KRA (KYC registration agency)
• Regulated by SEBI - Depository Participant (DP)
• Regulated by SEBI - Asset Management Company (AMC)
• Regulated by SEBI - Trading Exchanges
• Regulated by SEBI - Registrar and transfer agents
• Regulated by National Housing Bank

How Telecom Companies can benefit by implementing E-Sign?

Aadhaar eSign is a Govt. of India approved digital signing service that uses Aadhaar data of the Aadhaar holder to sign digital documents without using any other software. Organisations like banks, telecom companies, stock brokers, insurance companies etc. stand the make significant gains by implementing eSign solutions. With eSign, these organization will now be able to make full utilization of their web and mobile infrastructure for providing services to their customers.

Present workflow (without E-Sign and Ekyc)

At present customer either visits mobile connection company partner shops, or a salesman visits a customer. And all paperwork is getting manually filled and the customer has to handover passport size photographs, address proofs, id proofs etc. And the customer needs to sign each document physically. And mobile connection company validates this and it takes almost 2 to 3 days minimum to complete the process.

How banks can benefit by implementing E-Sign?

Aadhaar eSign is a Govt. of India approved digital signing service that uses Aadhaar data of the Aadhaar holder to sign digital documents without using any other software. Financial organizations like banks, stock brokers, insurance companies etc. stand the make significant gains by implementing eSign solutions. With eSign, these organization will now be able to make full utilization of their web and mobile infrastructure for providing services to their customers.

E-Sign use cases for Banking
Following are some use cases in which eSign can significantly improve the customer experience and provide a cost-effective and efficient solution for the organization.

The image below shows a completely paperless account opening process using eSign.