Startup

DigiLocker: An Initiative under Digital India

DigiLocker offers the general public with a cloud-based space to safe-keep their documents and use them whenever needed. With the introduction of DigiLocker now you don’t always have to take your original documents everywhere you go. For example, if you don’t carry your Driver’s license with you and the traffic police stops you and demands for your consent. You can show them your Driver’s license in your DigiLocker web/app account.

So, what is DigiLocker?

DigiLocker developed and provided by the Ministry of Electronics and IT {MeitY}, The Government of India under the Digital India campaign. DigiLocker provides every citizen of India with 1 GB of free cloud space i.e., a platform over the internet. This platform is used to keep various documents like Driver’s license, vehicle registration, PAN card, academic mark sheets, etc. in digital form directly from the original issuer of these certificates.

How to Register your Account on DigiLocker?

Follow these steps to register your account on DigiLocker as a new user;

• Visit the DigiLocker official website  

• Click on signup

• A dialog box will open asking you to enter your mobile number. Only enter the mobile number linked with your Aadhar number.

• After entering the mobile number and clicking on Continue, you will receive a One Time Password {OTP} on the same number
• Enter the OTP in the provided space/box and click on Verify

• Your account will be created after this step

How DigiLocker Developed over Years?

The beta version of this service first came out in February 2015. The Prime Minister of India launched it on 1 July 2019. Initially, the service provided 100 MB of cloud space, which was then increased to 1 GB. The size of an individual document must not be more than 10 MB.

20.13 lakh users with 24.13 lakh documents were recorded in July 2016. This number increased from April that year by 7.53 lakh as the government ordered all municipal bodies to use DigiLocker to minimize paper consumption.

In the year 2017, the government extended the facilities for ICSE Board students to store their mark sheets and use them wherever required. In February 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank started allowing the use of an e-signed document in DigiLocker within its net banking application. In May 2017 above 108 hospitals planned to use this application to store the medical records of their cancer patients. According to UIDAI architects, the patients would be provided with a Number Key that they can share with other hospitals to see their test reports.

Now in 2019, over two crores registered users are recorded with over 350 crore digital documents and 115 issuers. Moreover, 35 requester organizations accept documents from DigiLocker.

Stakeholders of DigiLocker

There are three Stakeholders of the DigiLocker platform namely;

• Citizen
• Issuers
• Requester

Citizen: They are the general public, like you and me who can store either their issued or uploaded the document in DigiLocker. There are two methods to store your documents, namely;

• Uploaded document: These are documents that the user uploads by scanning them. These include Driver’s license, voter’s ID, PAN Card, passport, mark sheets, income tax statements, etc.
• Issued document: A registered issuer issues these e-documents by pushing the Uniform Resource Indicator {URI} of the e-documents to the DigiLocker of the citizen-based upon their Aadhar number. The issuer agency needs to register themselves on DigiLocker

Issuer: They are people/authorities who make/generate documents for the general public. Like UIDAI issues the Aadhar card, these authorities play the role of the issuer in DigiLocker, Passport Seva Kendra, etc.

Requester: They are people/authorities who request us to display our documents. For example, the traffic police demands for Driver’s license, we need to use our Aadhar number to purchase SIM Cards, etc.

Structure of DigiLocker

Each DigiLocker or digital locker consists of the following sections/parts;

My certificate: This part has two sub-sections

• Digital documents: It includes the URIs of the documents issued by the government authority/ other agencies to the citizen
• Uploaded documents: This subsection consists of a list of documents uploaded by the citizen. Only pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, and gif files can be uploaded, and they should not exceed 10 MB in size.

My profile: this section shows the details of the users as listed in the UIDAI database

My issuer: This section shows the details related to the issuer, such as the issuer’s name and the number of documents issued by them to the user

My requester: this section displays details of the requester like requester’s name, and number of documents requested

Directories: A list of registered issuers and requesters along with their URLs are mentioned in this section

 Security Measures used in DigiLocker

The following are the security measures used in this system;

• Mobile authentication based sign up
• Data redundancy
• Timed logout
• Security audit
• 256 bit SSL Encryption
• ISO 27001 certified by Data Centre

Advantages of DigiLocker

These are the few advantages of using DigiLocker;

• Digitally empowers the citizen
• You can easily access your documents online
• Reduces the use of fake documents
• Reduces the use of physical documents
• The e-documents are valid to use everywhere
• You can easily share documents with departments and agencies
• It also ensures complete privacy of the user’s documents
• You can also sign in using your Facebook or Gmail ID
• Reduce the hassle of paperwork and empowers paperless documentation

Conclusion

DigiLocker is a cloud-based platform provided to people to store their official documents. Also, it is used by the Issuer and Requestors for their own purposes. 1 GB of free cloud space is provided to the registered person. A single document must not exceed 10 MB in size and should only be uploaded in the specified format.

It uses various security measures to ensure the user’s data is safe. So, you can relax and use this service provided by the government of India.  You can download the App version either from the Google Play Store or App Store depending on the type of Operating System you are using.

If you have any queries feel free to ask us at Enterslice