DIGILOCKER - GOVERNANCE
News: What is DigiLocker and does it
keep your data and documents safe?
What's in the news?
●
The DigiLocker platform, launched in 2015, operates as an app to store users’
digital records.
Key takeaways:
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As of early May, the app has over 270 million
registered users, while nearly 6.7 billion documents have been retrieved
through it.
DigiLocker:
●
It is the Indian Government’s flagship program
under Digital India.
Aim:
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It is aimed at transforming India into a digitally
empowered society and knowledge economy.
Nodal Ministry - Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY)
Par with Original
Documents:
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The issued documents in DigiLocker system are
deemed to be at par with original physical documents as per Rule 9A of the Information Technology
(Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries providing Digital
Locker facilities) Rules, 2016.
Key Features:
●
It is a platform for issuance and verification of
documents & certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of
physical documents.
●
It fits into Digital India’s vision of providing
citizens a shareable private space on a public cloud and making all documents
or certificates available on this cloud.
Benefits of Digital
locker:
●
Citizens can access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online
and is convenient and time saving.
●
It reduces
the administrative overhead of Government departments by minimizing the use
of paper.
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Digital Locker makes it easier to validate the
authenticity of documents as they are issued directly by the registered
issuers.
● Self-uploaded documents can be digitally signed using the eSign facility (which is similar to the process of self-attestation.