Digital Locker - Online document storage facility

Digital locker is one of the key initiatives under Digital India Program launched by the Prime Minister of India. It is aimed at minimizing the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. It is an online application, developed in collaboration with software development companies in India, which provides facility of online document storage of important documents including Voter ID card, PAN card, Driving license etc. 

Everyone needs to have Aadhaar number to use DigiLocker facility. Residents can upload their own electronic documents and digitally sign them using the e-sign facility. All e-documents are linked to Aadhaar number and can be treated as authorized documents by Government and its other entities. Therefore, physical documents need not to be carried while applying for jobs or government certificates or educational institutions etc.

Objectives of DigiLocker:

• Enable digital empowerment of residents by providing them withDigital Locker on the cloud
• Enable e-Signing of documents and make them available electronically and online Minimize the use of physical documents
• Ensure authenticity of the e-documents and thereby eliminate usage of fake documents
• Secure access to Govt. issued documents through a web portal and mobile application for residents
• Reduce administrative overhead of Govt. departments and agencies and make it easy for the residents to receive services
• Anytime, anywhere access to the documents by the resident
• Open and interoperable standards based architecture to support a well-structured standard document format to support easy sharing of documents across departments and agencies
• Ensure privacy and authorized access to residents' data.

Components of DigiLocker:

• Repository: It is a collection of e-Documents which are uploaded by issuers in a standard format and exposing a set of standard APIs for secure real-time search and access.
• Access Gateway: It provides a secure online mechanism for requesters to access e-documents from various repositories in real-time using e-Document URI (Uniform Resource Indicator).
• URI: It is a link to the e-Document uploaded by an issuer in a repository. The gateway will identify the address of the repository where the e-Document is stored based on the URI and will fetch the e-Document from that repository.

 Stakeholders of DigiLocker:

• Issuers:  Issuer is an entity issuing e-documents to individuals in a standard format and making them electronically available. For example, Registrar office, Income Tax department, RTO, Educational institutions etc.
• Requesters: Requester is an entity requesting secure access to a particular e-document stored in the repository. For example, Employers, Universities, Passport Office etc.
• Residents: An individual who uses the Digital Locker service based on Aadhar and OTP (one time password) authentication.

Digital Locker Portal:

• Dedicated 10MB free personal storage space, linked to each resident's Aadhaar, to securely store e-documents and to store URI link of e-documents for accessing them directly from the repositories.
• Sharing of secured e-documents with requesters.
• Currently accessible via web portal, will be made accessible through mobile application also.
• Integrated e-Sign service to digitally sign documents

How to use DigiLocker :

• Enter Aadhaar Number. After inserting aadhar card id number, an OTP is sent to already registered number and email address.
• Enter OTP and see the DASHBOARD to upload your current documents online.
• After successful of upload process, e-sign the uploaded document, which is used as official digital signature on documents.

Conclusion: