The traditional process of document signing can be a hassle for businesses. If a person is not available, you need to fax the paper and wait for the party to sign and send it back. All the steps can take a lot of time which affects your business.
Digital signatures are a useful alternative for businesses to make the process faster. Additionally, with document signing online tools adapting to digital signature is hassle-free and convenient for businesses and individuals.
Let us dive deep to understand the different uses of digital signatures in India.
What is a Digital Signature?
A digital signature is an electronic form of a manual signature that saves a lot of time in the document signing process. It uses a mathematical scheme to validate and authenticate the signer’s identity.
Digital signatures can be used for signing documents by individuals and businesses. Digital signatures have been legally recognized in India under the Information Technology Act of 2000. The IT Act defines the legal framework for the recognition of digital signatures in India.
Legal and Compliance Purposes
Digital signatures can be used for compliance purposes to ensure the validity of legal and compliance documents. The use of digital signatures enhances efficiency in obtaining consent for electronic communications
Businesses entering a partnership can exchange the contract electronically and electronically sign it to avoid potential delays.
Digital signature App facilitates the document signing process by helping individuals and organizations create, manage, and verify digital signatures.
Employee Onboarding
The employee onboarding process involves a lot of paperwork including contract forms, enrolment benefits, and more. Digital signatures are just as secure as manual signatures which can save the time needed to sign all the documents manually. Furthermore, it helps HR professionals make the onboarding process smooth.
Sign and Finalize Vendor Agreements
Negotiating with vendors is a common challenge for small businesses which makes it necessary to lock down the price, terms, and conditions. Relying on manual signing can delay the process. Electronic signatures make it easy to finalize the deal with just one click.
Stock Markets for Time Validation
Digital signatures guarantee data integrity with a trusted timestamp. Applying a timestamp to documents can be helpful in ensuring that the data is not temper. This can be especially useful in share markets where a slight change in date or time can have significant effects on share prices. Time authentication and validation are also crucial in lottery tickets and legal issuances.
Filing Income tax Returns
When filing tax returns online, a digital signature is required. It has the same status as a regular signature. Digital signatures can be use to attest tax return documents in a safer way.
Therefore, obtaining a digital signature is crucial for business owners, salaried professionals, and freelancers for filing income tax returns.
Alongside income tax returns, electronic signatures are also use for other communication such as appeals, assessments, and compliance documents with the income tax department.
There are many other uses of digital signatures as digitization continues to grow. Digital signatures emerge as indispensable tools to ensure authenticity, integrity, and compliance.
