Documents flow is the most important part of the economy. Tell me- can you invest or avail any service like banking or telecom or even check into a hotel without valid documents? But so many documents moving in pockets/wallets/internet are posing a challenge to logistics & authentication. The modern day crimes like identity theft are increasing day by day. Hence Government of India has launched Digilocker facility, where you can maintain digital documents.

DigiLocker is a convenient way to store and share your documents without using the originals. So if you have a digilocker you can authorise any credible agency (like Bank or Gas Agency) to check and verify documents.

So what is DIGILOCKER facility by Government of India?

Digilocker is a Government of India’s cloud based platform for paperless governance. Simply, it’s a website where you can store your various government issued or documents, using your Aadhaar card as your identification.

DigiLocker registration

To sign up for the Digilocker account go to Official Website.

Procedure to make an account

To sign up, you need only enter your Aadhar number. An SMS is set out to the mobile phone number you registered with Aadhar. This one-time-password is the only way to get inside your DIGILocker for the first time. Afterward, you can set your own password or link the DIGILocker to your Google or Facebook login.

The Data limit is 1 GB, which is adequate for uploading documents. Also, each document has to be less than 10 MB and in pdf, jpeg & png format only.

Benefits of Digilocker

The main aim is to reduce the flow of original or physical documents.
The documents can be e-signed using the facility provided.
Documents can be shared with authorized registered organizations.
Reduce transit & verification time of documents.
Reduction in frauds involving forged documents
Anytime-Anywhere access facility as documents is stored using cloud technology. This is just like Google Drive or Dropbox facility.

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An example of benefit of Digilocker

DigiLocker has partnered with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This is for making available digital driving license & vehicle registration certificates to Indian citizens. Under this partnership, it is now directly integrated with the National Register. This database is record of driving license and vehicle registration data across the country. Henceforth, users will be able to access their digital RC & DL both on desktop computers and on mobile devices.

How DigiLocker Works?

Should you avail Digilocker?

Yes. You should as many institutions are signing up for this to avail documents. Some of them are:

ICICI Bank
Kotak Mahindra Bank
Axis Bank
YesBank
CBSE & CISCE Boards – Their 2017 Std X & XII mark sheets and certificates are issued to students via DigiLocker
Maharashtra Education Board – Their Std X & XII digital mark sheets and certificates from 1990-2016 are available in DigiLocker
Ministry of Petroleum & Gas – Over 20crore LPG consumer cards from IOC, HPCL & BPCL are available now in DigiLocker
FundsTiger – A financial technology startup providing loans
Bajaj Allianz – A private insurance company providing insurance
WhatsLoan – A financial technology startup providing loans
Indiabulls Housing – An NBFC providing home loans
National Employment Service, Kerala – Citizens of Kerala applying for employment services can use DigiLocker documents
School of Open Learning – Students applying online for various courses offered by SO can use DigiLocker documents
Many More in Pipeline

Also as per latest data, it is gaining prominence. Currently 78 lakh Indian citizens have signed up for it and they can access 188 crores issued digital documents. The platform now has 34 registered issuers, 11 registered requesters, and 4 banking partners.

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It’s usage is growing by leaps and bounds every day.

Is it safe?

This is very important aspect. We recently heard that Aadhar data was leaked in millions from the UIDAI website. I am not a tech expert but overall I think it is safe. The protocol is HTTPS which is maximum in safety. Also, I think a website owned by government containing public documents will be heavily protected as it will always be eyes of hackers locally and abroad.

Any alternative?

Some private companies are giving this facility but on chargeable basis. Others like ICICI Bank offers it to its account holders & users of its Direct platform. But the usage is limited to storage. Sharing & E-sign is not available.

Hope you liked this review.

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