DigiLocker is an Indian online digital technology facility offered by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India under its Digital India initiative. DigiLocker provides any holder of the Aadhaar cloud account with access to authentic documents/certificates such as driving licenses, car registrations, academic mark sheets in digital format from the original issuers of those certificates. It also offers 1GB of disk space for each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents.
What is Digilocker
DigiLocker is nothing but a digital locker to hold all of your documents in an app. It is linked with both Aadhaar card and phone number. DigiLocker avoids the use of paper documents as part of the Government’s Digital India push, as all data is processed in the cloud.
You can upload your scanned copies of your paper documents like PDF, JPEG or PNG format and view them wherever you want. You may also e-sign up these submitted records, which act like the self-attestation of physical documents.
In the other hand, organisations such as the CBSE, the Registrar Office or the Income Tax Department may also send paper copies of records and certificates directly to the e-lockers.
The organisations registered with DigiLocker also include UIDAI, the Ministry of Road and Highway Transport, the Department of Income Tax, numerous school boards, including the CBSE, and divisions of various state and central government ministries.
According to the official statistics, DigiLocker has 1,35 crore users, with people using it for PAN cards, notebooks, caste certificates, birth certificates, ration cards, etc.
How to use DigiLocker
Go to the digilocker website from a browser or go to playstore in your smartphone enter digilocker in the search bar and download the app.
You can use your phone number and aadhaar number to create the user id and password using an OTP.
If all of the e-documents have been submitted by an organisation, you can see it in the account. You can also upload your own documents and e-sign them.
You will have the option to share documents with others by sharing a connection to an e-document.
Benefits of Digilocker
Anytime Anywhere Access: You can upload and view your documents anywhere at anytime. You don’t need to bring your papers. DigiLocker therefore carries the convenience factor.
Reduce Frauds: Financial fraud is very popular today. Documents are being hacked at different points of contact. Digitization would remove all of these risks. Documents should be exchanged in a secure and secure manner.
The Cost of Providing the Service: DigiLocker would eventually reduce the expense of delivering the service to the Country. It would reduce the staffing requirements and other operational costs thus will bring the govt expenditure in control.
Corruption Free India: DigiLocker is the true enabler of digitization which will further reduce the human interaction to avail Govt Services. Therefore, it will help in realizing the dream of Corruption Free India.
eSign: eSign is self-attestation or digital signature. It’s the substitution of the actual signature. The user can sign a document by means of a digital signature connected to aadhaar. You may also sign “Uploaded Documents” in addition to “Digital Documents.” The best part of the eSign facility is Free, although you need to pay annual payments for digital signatures.
Benefits to Citizens
- Important Documents Anytime, Anywhere!
- Authentic Documents, Legally at Par with Originals.
- Digital Document Exchange with the consent of the citizen.
- Faster service Delivery- Government Benefits, Employment, Financial Inclusion, Education, Health.
Benefits to Agencies
- Reduced Administrative Overhead: Aimed at the concept of paperless governance. It reduces the administrative overhead by minimizing the use of paper and curtailing the verification process.
- Digital Transformation: Provides trusted issued documents. Issued Documents available via DigiLocker are fetched in real-time directly from the issuing agency.
- Secure Document Gateway: Acts as a secure document exchange platform like payment gateway between trusted issuer and trusted Requester/Verifier with the consent of the citizen.
- Real Time Verification: Provides a verification module enabling government agencies to verify data directly from issuers after obtaining user consent.
Key Components of digilocker:
DigiLocker account has the following sections:
Dashboard – This is the home screen of your DigiLocker account, from where you can browse to other DigiLocker pages. This also shows a description of the documentation issued and a link to access documents from DigiLocker partners.
Issued Documents – This section shows a list to URIs (links) of digital records or certificates provided by the Government. Departments or organizations that are incorporated with DigiLocker.
Uploaded Documents – This section shows all the documents that you upload. You can change the type of the document and share the submitted documents.
Shared Documents – This section shows the list of records that you shared with others (via. email).
Activity – This section keeps a list of all the things you carry out with your DigiLocker account. The log includes information on events such as uploading, downloading, sharing, etc.
How can I upload documents to my DigiLocker account?
Step 1: First open the browser (chrome) and visit the website – digitallocker.gov.in.
Step 2: Next enter the details to signup and create the account.
Step 3: After signing into Digital Locker, Click on the upload icon to start uploading your documents.
Step 4: In the file upload dialog box, locate the file or the document to be uploaded from your local drive and select ‘open’ to complete the uploading.
Step 5: To assign a document type to your uploaded file, click ‘select doc type’. This will show a pop up with a drop down selection of various document types. Choose the appropriate document type and click ‘save’.
Step 6: You can also edit the name of the file using the edit icon next to the filename.
Conclusion:
Digi Locker application has been developed in a very secure manner with this application you can download your important documents and display them in the important place i.e. Government Officials. You can upload and view your documents anywhere at anytime. You don’t need to bring your papers. DigiLocker therefore carries the convenience factor.