Digital Locker Scheme

• Team Antworks

The Government of India launched the Digital Locker Scheme in February 2015. Digital Locker Scheme can be used by Indian residents to save their important documents. It acts as a personal electronic space for saving documents.

Features of Digital Locker Scheme

Safety of documents: Losing important documents is troublesome, so is saving your documents in a non-secure place. DigiLocker provides secure access to all your documents as it uses authenticity services provided by Aadhar.

Say goodbye to physical documents: DigiLocker allows Indian residents to share documents online across all government agencies which eliminates the need to carry physical documents all the time. It also takes the digital world to the next step. Citizens don’t have to carry a big file of documents everywhere.

Personal e-storage space: DigiLocker also encourages citizens to have a personal document storage space. This personal storage space is linked to their Aadhaar numbers and are secured by sophisticated technology.

Less paperwork: DigiLocker reduces or eliminates the need for paperwork and brings down the manual labour that goes into sorting out documents received in government agencies.

Less administrative work and cost: Government agencies are loaded with documents. Lot of resources like files, paper, storage area, and manpower is required to safeguard these documents. Administrative costs are really high in government sector. If the administrative work is reduced it directly reduces the administrative costs incurred by the government.

Who can use DigiLocker?

Individuals, firms, corporate companies, government agencies, and other institutions can benefit from DigiLocker facility. There are three major key stakeholders that benefit from this system. They are citizens, issuers, and requesters.

• Citizens can use DigiLocker facility to store and access their documents anytime, anywhere. They can save documents like PAN card, Aadhar card, university marksheet, passport, etc. Citizens can also receive documents on DigiLocker. Any registered issuer on DigiLocker platform can send documents to a registered DigiLocker user. The received documents are received are stored in a central repository and citizens can share their documents using the URL link.
• Issuers are another key stakeholder of DigiLocker facility. Issuers can issue e-documents to citizens instead of printing them using this facility. Going forward, CBSE results will be issued on DigiLocker.
• Requestors also benefit from DigiLocker Scheme. Any government departments that are offering some sort of services to citizens can request for the citizen’s documents in order to process any request.

Structure of digital locker scheme

Once a user registers for DigiLocker facility, they will get access to a secure electronic storage area. This storage space has the following sections:

My certificates: This space has all the documents of the registered user. All the documents received and sent are saved here. My Certificates category is divided into two sections, namely Digital Documents and Uploaded Documents. While Digital Documents section contains the URL’s of the documents received by a user from government departments and other agencies, Uploaded Documents gathers all the documents that are uploaded by the user. Customers can upload a file which is not more than 10MB in size.

My Profile: This section shows the complete profile of the user. The profile is gathered from the UIDAI database.

My Issuer: This section of DigiLocker lists all the issuers who have issued documents to to user. It also lists the number of documents issued by the user to the issuer.

Directories: This section of DigiLocker account displays all the registered issuers and requestors under this scheme. Users can take a look at this list to while availing any services from government agencies.

My Requestor: This space displays all the requestor’s names and the number of documents requested and received by the user.

How to get a DigiLocker account?

You can get a DigiLocker account with just your mobile number. Users should download the DigiLocker app from Google Play Store and register themselves using their phone number. The phone number will be authenticated by sending a OTP. Users will then be asked to select a username and password for their DigiLocker account. Once the account is created, users can sync it to their Aadhaar card to avail additional information.

How safe is DigiLocker?

When it comes to sharing documents, we all are a little skeptical. Documents are very confidential and should be kept safe and secure. DigiLocker has implemented many safety measures to make sure your account is safe. Some of the safety features of DigiLocker are:

• DigiLocker follows general software development practices which uses uniform coding. Every feature is inspected and tested internally for security purposes.
• DigiLocker uses 256 bit secure socket layer (SSL) Encryption which is the highest level of security.
• DigiLocker uses mobile authentication via OTP which allows users to authorize every transaction made on the account.
• Users have to provide Aadhaar Biometric or go through mobile OTP authentication service to receive documents from registered issuers.
• DigiLocker uses mobile authentication based signup via OTP application is ISO 27001 certified.
• To help users fight against document theft, DigiLocker application will terminate automatically if extended inactivity is detected.
• DigiLocker has a security audit certificate from one of the leading security audit companies.
• All the documents sharede is carried out with the user’s permission.
• DigiLocker cannot be accessed using public WiFi or hotspot.

Advantages of DigiLocker

• DigiLocker will help the government to cut down on their administrative expenses. Government of India spends millions in recruiting people, providing them with supplies, and creating physical storage space for all the documents received. DigiLocker can help the government reduce their administrative costs.
• DigiLocker saves a lot of time while applying for government documents or availing any service. Instead of applying for a PAN card through an agent, one can apply for it online and the concerned authority will request for your documents from DigiLocker. The whole process takes less time.
• As DigiLocker allows customers to share documents on a secure platform, it minimises fraud and misuse of documents. No document can be shared without the user’s permission.
• All documents uploaded by the user requires e-sign without which documents are invalid. e-sign is safe and protects the documents.
• One doesn’t have to carry physical documents everywhere. It is all digitally saved.