Justifying his preferences, Mr Gupta said that the RBI and Sebi enjoy a fair amount of credibility among people of the country. Moreover, these organisations have got the experience and are capable of creating the required infrastructure to make such high security operations successful, he added. However, the controller also expects the stock market organisations such as BSE and NSE, banks and software houses to take a lead in becoming the certifying authorities. The Government would prefer that the number of first level of license holders should not be more than 100 tostart with, said Mr Gupta. Mr Gupta said that he hopes to grant the first license for e-signature certification by the beginning of the next year.

But first, the infrastructure and manpower will have to be created. Moreover, the rules, regulations and guidelines will have to be put in place as per the Information Technology Act 2000 before the application for the licenses can be invited, he added. The applicants will be scrutinised by legal and technical experts for their experience, capabilities and infrastructure facilities. "We will make sure that the license is issued within a month of the application received by the Government," he said.

Creating a fool-proof and extremely secure system is also one of the priorities of the controller. "We will have to work as a repository of all digital signature certificates. Therefore, we would need a robust system so that the secrecy and security of the information is maintained," said Mr Gupta. Mr NK Gupta is joining the office of the Controller in the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) on Tuesday. He will be the first employee of his department and will build his own team of experts to work as a ITregulator. The controller will also appoint deputy controllers and assistant controllers to assist him. According the Information Technology Act 2000, the controller will not only issue licenses to the certifying agencies but will also supervise the activities of the certifying authorities.

He will also be responsible for laying down standards to be maintained by such authorities and specifying the processes to be followed by them for providing certificates besides, acting as a repository of all Digital Signature Certificates issued by the certifying authorities. Nasscom has also endorsed the view of the controller for appointing RBI as the first certifying authority of digital signatures. Nasscom president, Mr Dewang Mehta said: "It is going to be a great thing as RBI has got the trust of people. However, we would like to recommend that the postal department also be considered for the job. In Singapore, the postal department is doing a good job of certifying e-signatures."