In DigiLocker, a user can get various Indian government departments to issue documents in digital format. Read on to know more about it…
While you are travelling in your car or bike — what would you do when a policeman intercepts and asks for your vehicle papers? Instead of producing various vehicle (paper) documents, you can open the app on your smartphone that has driving licence, vehicle registration, insurance and other relevant documents and show it to the police.
The Concept
These are not just scanned copies of your vehicle documents, but digital documents that are considered original by the law. Now it’s possible to digitally store most of the government documents online in DigiLocker app. It is something similar to a demat account that holds dematerialised share. In DigiLocker, a user can get various Indian government departments to issue documents in digital format. Currently, there are 117 such issuers of government digital documents.
You can get PAN, Aadhaar, vehicle fitness certificate, vehicle tax receipt, class ten and twelve mark sheets, driving licence, caste certificate, ration card, birth certificate, college degrees and diplomas, marriage certificate, and many more.
Other Applications
Apart from being a virtual briefcase to hold your documents, one of the most prevalent uses of DigiLocker is online KYC (Know Your Customer). Angel Broking, Edelweiss Broking and Zerodha, for example, are registered with DigiLocker as “Requesters”. When opening an account with these stock brokers, their customers can do online KYC using DigiLocker. Similarly, BankBazaar and FundsTiger use it for KYC to provide loans.
Actually, the various applications of DigiLocker are expanding and in future it can be used in the health sector, where the user can upload medical documents and the hospital treating him can request the medical history. Similarly, universities in India can request for mark sheets if a student applies for admission.
Presently, several employers spend a lot of money on document verification after hiring an employee. Instead of the conventional verification of documents, the employers can request for original documents from DigiLocker, which can be a huge cost saving factor.
Another possible application of DigiLocker is — if any businessman is setting up a new business, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs can pull request documents. The aim is to reduce paperwork and make processes faster.
Features
DigiLocker also allows users to scan and upload their documents. The service is free and allows up to one gigabyte (1 GB) online space. The documents that a user uploads have to be below 10 MB each. Earlier, DigiLocker also provided a facility where its user could upload documents and self-attest them using Aadhaar-based e-Signature.
The basic idea is — a person’s identity needs to be attached to the document to make it legal. Aadhaar allows users to attach a person’s identity at a lower cost than using digital signature certificates. But since the Supreme Court judgment on the use of Aadhaar, this service is no longer provided on the platform. E-Signing a document is still possible, but it is not as seamless as earlier and involves a lengthier procedure.
Signing up for DigiLocker is easy. While you can sign up using a mobile number, having an Aadhaar is mandatory to request documents from issuers. You can get documents issued from government departments and also upload your own – a will, for example.
