Sify Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate
Coal India Limited eProcurement /CIL Tenders
Coal India Limited (CIL) is an organised coal mining corporate. Formed in November 1975, when the Indian Government took over private coal mines. CIL is a holding company with seven wholly owned coal producing subsidiary companies and one mine planning and consultancy company.
CIL has initiated the following steps to ensure transparency in the tenders for the organisation:
- E-auction process is introduced to sell coal to any customer from any location
- Introduced e- procurement to speed up purchase of vital inputs
- Once a vendor registers for his/ her Coal India Ltd e-procurement account, it can be accessed from any location, provided the bidder has a computer with minimum pentium IV configuration and a broadband internet connection. The vendors can check the CIL website for the complete details.
- The Coal India Ltd e-tendering process ensures transparency. The system does not allow any third party to view the bidders' tenders before the date of opening for the particular tender. The Tender Inviting Authority has the authority to view the tenders with their valid digital signature certificate. When the tender is opened the bidder will be able to view and download the competitors' bids as well.
- As a part of the Coal India Ltd e-procurement process, class 3 digital signature certificates have become mandatory for all the vendors or bidders who wish to participate in the e-tendering system. The vendors should check the digital signature certificates guidelines provided for the use of by the buyer department.
Digital signature certificates(DSC) can be purchased from any certifying authority (CA) authorised to sell the certificates. A CA verifies the buyers identification and issues digital certificates. A vendor can request for a certificate from an authorised CA to participate in e-procurement processes in India.
- If the bidder has already procured a certificate to bid for e-tenders in India, then he/ she should log-in with an e-token which has a DSC. The certificate number will be updated in the bidder's profile upon the first login.
- As an alternative, the bidder can also forward his/ her certificate serial number to a CIL representative along with authenticated documents. The bidder's profile will be updated with the DSC serial number.
- When a bidder's DSC number is not updated along with his/ her user id, he/ she may receive an error “Authentication Failed”, during login. To resolve the issue, forward a mail to a CIL representative and get DSC number updated.
An e-token has a one unique password to protect the DSC certificate. For a public key infrastructure (PKI) login, the bidder has to enter this password. The vendor is advised to save his/ her password in a secure location. In case he/ she forgets the password, the e-token will be automatically blocked due to security-related features.