DigiLocker
DigiLocker is an Indian state-owned cloud digitization service provided by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) under its Digital India initiative. DigiLocker allows access to digital versions of various documents including driver's licenses, vehicle registration certificates and academic mark sheets. It also provides 1 GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents. Users need to possess an Aadhaar number to use DigiLocker. During registration, user identity is verified using a one-time password (OTP) sent to the linked mobile number. The beta version of the service was rolled out in February 2015, and was launched to the public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015. Storage space for uploaded legacy documents was initially 100 MB. Individual files are limited to 10 MB. In July 2016, DigiLocker recorded 2.013 million users with a repository of 2.413 million documents. The number of users saw a large jump of 753,000 new users in April when the central government urged municipal bodies to use DigiLocker to make their administration paperless. From 2017, the facility was extended to allow students of the CISCE board to store their class X and XII certificates in DigiLocker and share them as required. In February 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank started providing access to documents in DigiLocker from within its net-banking application, allowing users to electronically sign and share them. In May 2017, over 108 hospitals, including the Tata Memorial Hospital were planning to launch the use of DigiLocker for storing cancer patients' medical documents and test reports. According to a UIDAI architect, patients would be provided a number key, which they could share with other hospitals to grant them access to their test reports. As of December 2019, DigiLocker provides access to over 372 crore authentic documents from 149 issuers. Over 3.3 crore users are registered on the platform and 43 requester organisations are accepting documents from DigiLocker. In 2023, Government of India integrated Passport Application Form with Digilocker. As of December 2024, Digilocker platform facilitated 9.4 billion document issuances to 43.49 crore users. There is also an associated facility for e-signing documents. The service is intended to minimise the use of physical documents and reduce administrative expense, while proving the authenticity of the documents, providing secure access to government-issued documents and making it easy for the residents to receive services.
| DigiLocker | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Developers | |||||
| Initial release | December 2015 | ||||
| Stable release(s) | |||||
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| Type | Digitization | ||||
| License | Freeware | ||||
| Website | digilocker.gov.in | ||||
DigiLocker is an Indian state-owned cloud digitization service provided by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) under its Digital India initiative. DigiLocker allows access to digital versions of various documents including driver's licenses, vehicle registration certificates and academic mark sheets.[1] It also provides 1 GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents.
Users need to possess an Aadhaar number to use DigiLocker. During registration, user identity is verified using a one-time password (OTP) sent to the linked mobile number.[2]
The beta version of the service was rolled out in February 2015,[3] and was launched to the public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015.[4][5] Storage space for uploaded legacy documents was initially 100 MB.[6] Individual files are limited to 10 MB.
In July 2016, DigiLocker recorded 2.013 million users with a repository of 2.413 million documents. The number of users saw a large jump of 753,000 new users in April when the central government urged municipal bodies to use DigiLocker to make their administration paperless.[7]
From 2017, the facility was extended to allow students of the CISCE board to store their class X and XII certificates in DigiLocker and share them as required.[8] In February 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank started providing access to documents in DigiLocker from within its net-banking application, allowing users to electronically sign and share them.[9] In May 2017, over 108 hospitals, including the Tata Memorial Hospital were planning to launch the use of DigiLocker for storing cancer patients' medical documents and test reports. According to a UIDAI architect, patients would be provided a number key, which they could share with other hospitals to grant them access to their test reports.[10]
As of December 2019, DigiLocker provides access to over 372 crore authentic documents from 149 issuers. Over 3.3 crore users are registered on the platform and 43 requester organisations are accepting documents from DigiLocker.[11] In 2023, Government of India integrated Passport Application Form with Digilocker.[12] As of December 2024, Digilocker platform facilitated 9.4 billion document issuances to 43.49 crore users.[13]
There is also an associated facility for e-signing documents. The service is intended to minimise the use of physical documents and reduce administrative expense, while proving the authenticity of the documents, providing secure access to government-issued documents and making it easy for the residents to receive services.
Structure of DigiLocker
[edit]Each user's digital locker has the following sections.[14]
- My Certificates: This section has two subsections:
- Digital Documents: This contains the URIs of the documents issued to the user by government departments or other agencies.
- Uploaded Documents: This subsection lists all the documents which are uploaded by the user. Each file to be uploaded should not be more than 10MB in size. Only pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, bmp and gif file types can be uploaded.
- My Profile: This section displays the complete profile of the user as available in the UIDAI database.
- My Issuer: This section displays the issuers' names and the number of documents issued to the user by the issuer.
- My Requester: This section displays the requesters' names and the number of documents requested from the user by the requesters.
- Directories: This section displays the complete list of registered issuers and requesters along with their URLs.
Amendments to IT Act for Digital Locker
[edit]DigiLocker is not merely a technical platform. The Ministry of Electronics and IT, has notified rules concerning the service.[15] Amendments made to the Information Technology Act, 2000 in February 2017 state that the documents provided and shared through DigiLocker are at par with the corresponding physical certificates.[16]
According to this Rule, – (1) Issuers may start issuing and Requesters may start accepting digitally (or electronically) signed certificates or documents shared from subscribers’ Digital Locker accounts at par with the physical documents in accordance with the provisions of the Act and rules made thereunder. (2) When such certificate or document mentioned in sub-rule (1) has been issued or pushed in the Digital Locker System by an issuer and subsequently accessed or accepted by a requester through the URI, it shall be deemed to have been shared by the issuer directly in electronic form.[17]
Important Notifications from Government Departments Regarding DigiLocker
[edit]- Insurance Regulator (Insurance Regulatory Authority of India): IRDAI advises all Insurance companies for issuance of Digital Insurance Policies via DigiLocker[18]
Security measures of DigiLocker
[edit]Following are the security measures[19] used in the system
- 256 Bit SSL Encryption
- Mobile Authentication based Sign Up
- ISO 27001 certified Data Centre
- Data Redundancy
- Timed Log Out
- Security Audit
See also
[edit]- Common man empowerment:
- Har ghar jal (water connection for each house)
- One Nation, One Ration Card (food security card)
- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (affordable housing for all)
- Saubhagya electrification scheme (electrification of all houses)
- Swachh Bharat (toilet for all houses)
- Ujjwala Yojana (clean cooking gas connections for all)
- Unified University and College Management System
References
[edit]- ^ "What is DigiLocker and does it keep your data safe?".
- ^ "Digital Locker by Govt. of India: All You Need To Know; HimBuds.com". himbuds.com. 14 May 2016. Archived from the original on 8 January 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
- ^ Alawadhi, Neha. "Digital India programme: Government rolls out beta version of 'digital locker'". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ^ "Digital Locker Scheduled to be Launched on 1st July 2015 by the Hon. Prime Minister". blog.mygov.in. 22 June 2015. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
- ^ "Government's Digi-Locker For Electronic Document Storage To Launch July 1". The Logical Indian. 19 June 2015. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "DigiLocker gets good response". The Hindu. 20 March 2015. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ Pranav Mukul (25 July 2016). "DigiLocker initiative records a repository of 24.13 lakh docs from 20.13 lakh users". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "ICSE, ISC students to access digital locker facility to store, share documents, certificates". The Indian Express. 19 May 2017. Archived from the original on 27 May 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "Kotak a/c to give access to e-docs in DigiLocker". Times of India. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "100-odd hospitals plan to launch DigiLocker for cancer patients". The Indian Express. 25 May 2017. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "DigiLocker Official Statistics". DigiLocker. Archived from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ^ "Digilocker for passport: Why there's no rule change and it's not mandatory".
- ^ "How Digilocker outage has hit customer onboarding at stockbrokers".
- ^ Frequently Asked Questions (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 15 March 2015, retrieved 30 May 2015
- ^ "Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016" (PDF). Government of India.
- ^ "The Information Technology (Controller of Digital Locker) Rules, 2016" (PDF).
- ^ "Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules and Amendment" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
- ^ "DigiLocker Departmental Circulars". Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ "FAQ: What security features are implemented in DigiLocker? Is it safe to put my data on DigiLocker platform?". DigiLocker. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
