Why e-Pramaan?

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.