Pramaan in Hindi means validation. This word has been adopted by DeitY to christen its eAuthentication service as ePramaan.
ePramaan is a National e-Authentication service offered by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
ePramaan provides a simple, convenient and secure way for the users to access government services via internet/mobile as well as for the government to assess the authenticity of the users.
ePramaan offers authentication as a service by verifying the credentials of a person who is wishing to access any e-Governance service.
Q: What is e-Authentication?
Ans: Electronic Authentication (or e-Authentication) is the process of electronic verification of the identity of a user. e-Authentication provides a simple, convenient and secure way for the users to access government services via internet/mobile as well as for the government to assess the authenticity of the users.
e- Authentication helps to build up confidence and trust in online transactions and encourages the use of the electronic environment as a channel for service delivery.
The next question is than Why e-Pramaan?
The answer is e-Pramaan provides guidelines that will help in the selection and implementation of the appropriate e-authentication approaches. Having a standardised e-Authentication framework has the following benefits:
- Transparency- E-authentication decisions will be made in an open and transparent manner
- Cost-effectiveness Government departments and agencies will not have to implement cumbersome and expensive e-authentication processes for simple or low-risk transactions
- Risk management: The selection of e-authentication mechanisms will be guided by the likelihood and impact of identified risks
- Consistency: Government departments and agencies will apply a consistent approach to selecting the appropriate e-authentication mechanism
- Trust: The mechanisms used will support online and mobile based services and enhance security, safety, and trust in such transactions
- Improved privacy: Personally identifiable information will be collected only where necessary as per the sensitivity level of the application or service
- Efficiency: The time to deploy an e-Authentication capability for any government application will be greatly reduced
The framework provides various levels of authentication based on the sensitivity requirement of an e-Governance service.
- Level 0: No Authentication required for publicly available information.
- Level 1: User Id and Password based authentication. This is meant for basic public services with low sensitivity service.
- Level 2: Two factor authentication (User Id and Password AND OTP). Meant for personally identifiable information and services with moderate levels of security.
- Level 3: User Id and password PLUS Digital Certificate (soft/hard). Meant for services which requires high security and any or all of PAIN properties.
- Level 4: User Id and password PLUS Biometric based authentication. Meant for services requiring the highest levels of security.
The level 4 of Authentication in e-Pramaan supports UIDAI biometric authentication in which Aadhaar holders can get authenticated by giving their fingerprint which will be verified in the background through Aadhaar Authentication Server.
The services of e-Pramaan will be provided through NSDG, SSDG. Central government department or state government department services registered with various service delivery gateways will call e-Pramaan services for authentication before the actual service is invoked.
Read the FAQs now or see the video. The choice is yours. The project is the development stage now, and will be ready for Beta launch in another three months.
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