With countries like Bangladesh passing digital signature laws as well, the upcoming Asian Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Symposium is set to work on evolving common standards for digital signature among Asian countries.
To be hosted for the first time by India from October 27 this year, the three-day symposium is expected to see participation from PKI forum representatives of various Asian countries, apart from delegations from European countries.
Digital signature is a mathematical scheme that authenticates the validity of a document. With the use of digital signatures, documents or messages can be are established to have been created and sent by a known sender and not altered in transit.
“Unlike some European and other countries, Asian countries have grown significantly in the field of digital signatures and various laws surrounding it. While China, Taiwan, Korea and India have made significant progress, recently Bangladesh also passed its digital signature laws. Hence, various PKI forums of these countries felt the need to have common Asian standards for digital signature which will be followed up during the upcoming symposium,” said Jagdeep Kochar, chairman, PKI India Forum, and executive director, nCode Solutions, a division of Ahmedabad-based Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Company Ltd (GNFC).
Apart from 15 speakers, about 60 delegates from 20 Asians are expected to participate in the symposium. According to Kochar, the theme of the symposium will be 'Interoperability' and will focus on information exchange between Asian countries. “Digital signatures are basically driven by governments and each country has its own electronic laws. Hence, the major purpose of the symposium will be to focus on exchanging information on a common platform ,” Kochar added.
