eSign is an online electronic signature service that allows any Aadhaar holder to digitally sign documents using Aadhaar-based authentication. The service is legally valid under India's Information Technology Act and enables paperless execution of contracts, agreements, government forms, and financial documents. A user authenticates via Aadhaar OTP or biometric, and a digital signature certificate is issued in real-time for the specific document.
Before eSign, digital signatures in India required physical USB tokens, visits to certifying authorities, and annual renewals — a process so cumbersome that digital signatures were used almost exclusively by businesses. eSign democratized digital signatures for all 1.4 billion Aadhaar holders. Anyone with an Aadhaar number and a mobile phone can now legally sign a document in seconds, from anywhere.
eSign completes the paperless transaction layer of India Stack. Combined with Aadhaar (identity verification), UPI (payment), and DigiLocker (document storage), eSign enables fully digital, legally binding transactions without any paper, physical presence, or manual verification. This four-layer stack — identity, payment, documents, signatures — is what makes India's digital public infrastructure uniquely comprehensive compared to any other country's approach.