BENGALURU: The Microsoft India Research team is working on a project that could end the necessity of an individual’s physical presence at municipal offices and banks to sign legal documents; instead the same would be done using technologies like Skype.
Aadhar, the unique identification credentials for Indians, is being actively pursued by Microsoft to help citizens sign off documents sitting at home or at office without having to visit the municipal office and state departments, to sign important documents.
“You can log onto Skype and link it to Aadhar, so that the other person knows you are the person who you say you are… imagine Government to Citizen and Business to Customers scenarios… that is something actively happening at the India development Centre (of Microsoft),” pointed out Bhaskar Pramanik Chairman, Microsoft India.
Various use case scenarios have already been demonstrated and Microsoft is discussing internally ways to take the platform forward.
Giving an example of a case scenario, Pramanik pointed to regular visits that pensioners have to make to banks each year, to prove that they are alive.
Government has already allowed linking of Aadhar cards to end this. However, with the use of Skype, the customer can do even the one time verification sitting at home.
“There are a few other case scenarios around the judicial system, like giving a testimony at the Bengaluru Municipal Corporation of who you are to sign some deeds; you could actually do it from home using Skype instead of going to their office… as an utility it has a phenomenal opportunities and this is something we are actively pursuing,” said Pramanik.
Highlighting the use of such combinations, Sundar Srinivasan, General Manager, Search Technology Centre-India at Microsoft said, “… wherever one can imagine a situation that requires somebody to travel from a far off place to physically present themselves… We have assets like Skype, which allows you to actually not just hear but see somebody from wherever you are; I think it is a powerful combination.”