GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LAUNCHED DIGITAL LOCKER........

Imagine while applying for a job you don’t have to give attested photocopies of your certificates to your new employer, but just a link on the internet where your certificates are stored. This may sound to be a futuristic concept, but the idea for the digital locker is afloat and a beta version has already been implemented.

WEBSITE- http://digitallocker.gov.in

The key issues that will be resolved by the digital locker is that it will reduce administrative overheads as the government agencies no longer need to store documents in physical form. The citizens do not need to submit multiple physical copies of the documents and there will be lesser challenges in verifying the authenticity of the documents.

 The digital locker is an online repository where a user can store and share his certificates issued by private and government agencies. The department of electronics and information technology (DeitY),  has launched the beta version of a digital locker where such documents can be stored. Currently the individuals are given about 10 MB of space which is expected to increase till 1 GB. The storage space will be provided on cloud hosted by National Informatics Centre and the software is being developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).  The key purpose of the digital locker is to minimize the resubmission of physical documents and provide a framework where authenticated certificates can reside thereby minimizing fraud.

The documents can be self attested by the individuals using digital signatures, and even government agencies can store their documents on this network. The beta version of the digital locker is currently hosted at www.digitallocker.gov.in which in a way is a cloud- based file sharing service. Citizens will be able to access their digital lockers using their Aadhaar number and mobile number.  Citizens can store certificates like degrees, PAN Card, Aadhaar, BPL certificate, passport etc.

In order to use the beta version of the digital locker a user has to create an account using his Aadhaar / UID number. The user has to share his mobile number through which a One Time Password (OTP) is sent which in-turn will give access to the digital locker. Once signed in the Digital Locker captures the user profile details from the Aadhaar database.

Once a user uploads his documents in the electronic format, he will be able to share the same online with a registered agency / department of government. One can also see the list of agencies issuing e-documents and also those which have accessed one’s documents.

A user can upload files up to 1 MB in PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF formats from the local machine to the digital locker. The government is currently seeking input on the beta version of a digital locker through the http://digitallocker.gov.in/.