Do You Know - What Is "DIGI Locker" Launched Under 'Digital India Programme'?

What is a ‘Digital Locker’ /”DIGI Locker”?

‘Digital Locker’ / “ DIGI Locker” is one of the key initiatives under the ‘Digital India’ Programme of the Union Government of India of PM Narendra Modi, formed in February 2015 and launched in July 2015.

‘Digital Locker’ is a virtual online ‘Safety Locker’, similar to a ‘Safety Locker’ in a Bank, which can be used by the Indian ‘Residents’ using the ‘Aadhar Number’, issued by the ‘Unique Identity Authority of India’ /UIDAI.

It is an external website that opens in a new window, in which the ‘Registered Users’ can store their ‘E-Documents’ with their ‘E-Signatures’, in a ‘secure dedicated and personal’ electronic space of Maximum 1 GB.

The ‘Digital Locker’ can be used, for storing their important documents, such as, School, College, University Certificates, IT PAN cards, Family Ration Cards, Voter Id Cards, and the URI’s of the ‘e-documents’ issued by various issuer departments, etc. A beta Version of the ‘Digital Locker’ has been released by the ‘Department of Electronics and Information Technologies’ /DEITY of the Union Government of India.

What are the ‘Objectives’ of the ‘Digital Locker System’?:-

The Following are the ‘Objectives’ of the ‘Digital Locker System’:

To enable ‘Digital Empowerment of Residents of India’, by providing them with ‘Digital Locker’ on the Cloud,

To enable ‘E-Signing’ of the documents and make them available electronically and online,

To minimize the use of Physical Documents /Hard Paper Copies,

To ensure authenticity of the e-documents and thereby,

To eliminate usage of fake documents,

To reduce the administrative overhead of the Government Departments and Agencies and

To make it easy for the residents to receive services,

To provide “Anytime, Anywhere Access” /’AAA’ to the documents by the residents,

To open an inter operable standards based architecture to support a well-structured standard document format,

To support easy sharing of documents across departments and agencies and To ensure privacy and allow only authorized access to the residents’ data

To secure access to Government issued documents through a ‘Web Portal’ and ‘Mobile Applications’ for the residents of India,

Who Can make use of the ‘Digital Locker’ Facility?:

The ‘Resident’ -Indian Citizens, with ‘Aadhar Number’,issued by the ‘Unique Identity Authority of India’ / ‘UIDAI’, can make use of the ‘Digital Locker Facility’.

Components of Digital Locker System:

‘Digital Locker Repository’ is a Collection of e-Documents which are uploaded by issuers in a standard format and exposing a set of standard APIs for secure real-time search and access.

‘Access Gateway’ provides a secure online mechanism for requesters to access e-documents from various repositories in real-time using e-Document, ‘Uniform Resource Indicator’/ ‘URI’.

The ‘Uniform Resource Indicator’ / ‘URI’ is a link to the e-Document uploaded by an issuer in a repository.

The gateway will identify the address of the repository where the e-Document is stored based on the Uniform Resource Indicator / URI and will fetch the e-Document from that repository.

With the launching of ‘DIGI Locker’, the number of uses of ‘Aadhar Number’ has increased by one more benefit.

All the Indian Citizens, who may like to make use the unique- ‘Digital Locker’ Facility offered by the Union Government of India, will be taking steps to obtain ‘Aadhar Number’ and ‘Aadhar Card’, in case if they have not yet obtained the same, not realizing the utilities of ‘Aadhar Card’ in India.

The ‘DIGI Locker’ Facility has given a boost to the ‘Aadhar Card’ System of Unique Identity in India.