What Is DigiLocker?

Government of India initiated the campaign Digital India in order to ensure the Government's services are made available to their citizens electronically with the improved online infrastructure. This campaign was launched to make the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.

DigiLocker is an important part of its Digital India initiative, where you can avail the dedicated cloud storage space up to 1 GB free of cost. And according to the DigiLocker website, currently it provides access to 3.36 billion digital documents.

Now if you think that, we already have cloud storage services like Dropbox, then why we need one more. Here is very simple logic, DigiLocker is a cloud service to store and access document issued by government agencies, which you can also be used for your personal storage.

The DigiLocker account gives a facility to store the scanned copies of all your documents on the cloud and provides access to these whenever required. It will reduce your paper load. Using DigiLockers saves time and it keeps your documents safe.

Once you have open the account, either you can directly upload the documents yourself or contact companies and organizations registered with DigiLocker and they will directly push electronic copies of your all documents such as voter ID, Driving Licence, Aadhaar Card, School and University Certificates and PAN Card, etc. into your account.

It makes sense to get organizations who provide DigiLocker services to put your documents in the account directly, as that assures the authenticity of documents.

You can access all your documents anywhere any time through the DigiLocker app on your smartphone or by signing into your account on your laptop also. 

Advantages of DigiLocker System

1. Minimize the Cost of Providing the Service: 

DigiLocker Integration will bring down the cost of verifying the authenticity of a person to access the services by the Govt. The biggest advantage of DigiLocker is that it will reduce the govt’s manpower requirement & also reduce the other operational costs. Therefore, if you sign up for the DigiLocker, you indirectly contribute to reduce the cost of providing the service. 

2. Frauds Prevention: 

Now a days financial frauds have become very common. Documents are being compromised at various touchpoints. Digitization will eradicate all such risks and fraudulent activities. With the help of DigiLocker, all documents can be shared in a safe and secured manner. At the same time, you have to be a bit careful that you should not share your DigiLocker or Aadhaar credentials with anyone. Always avoid accessing your account from Public Wi-Fi hotspot or from other computers.

In this, documents authentication process run digitally by the agencies therefore except your security of login details, the entire process is safe and secure.

3. eSign Facility: 

Basically, eSign is a digital signature. It is the replacement of the physical signature. The user can sign any document via Aadhaar linked digital signature. There are the benefits of DigiLocker that, you can sign “Uploaded Documents” besides “Digital Documents”. DigiLocker allows account holders to electronically sign their documents using the eSign facility and it makes self-attestation easier.

The best part is eSign facility is it’s free whereas, for digital signatures, you need to pay annual fees.

4. Corruption Free India: 

DigiLocker is the way to reduce human interaction to avail any Govt. Services. Therefore, it will help to build Corruption Free India. A few years ago it was unthinkable to get a Passport without paying the bribe. Due to digitization, the entire online process become corruption-free.

You can apply for a passport online and book an appointment. On the designated day, you have to submit your documents and bio-metric details will be captured.

5. Anytime Anywhere Accessibility: 

Accessibility is an advantage of DigiLocker. You can access your all documents anytime, anywhere according to your need. It completely minimizes your paperwork. No need to carry your documents anymore. It is even accepted as proof of identity at airports and railway stations. Therefore, DigiLocker system brings convenience factor in our fast-growing working life. 

6. Comparison with Private Cloud Storage Services: 

If you avail any cloud service, it is annoying to scan and upload your documents. Here is the advantage in DigiLocker, all Govt. documents will be in the digitized format. Only personal documents you will have to scanned and uploaded. 

Some banks also provide online storage facility to their premium customers but what if in future you would like to close the account or no longer enjoy premium benefits. 

You can rely upon on cloud storage of Govt. in terms of security and availability.

7. Reduced turnaround time: 

Today If you want to apply for a PAN card, it takes around 2 weeks to get a new PAN card. Now imagine that the entire process is digital. You applied for your PAN card online. The income Tax department will raise request online for documents required to issue PAN card. Here you will Digital Signature (eSign) the documents with the help of DigiLocker using Aadhaar e-KYC service.

The one thing you need to do here, whenever you apply for Digital Signature, you have to complete the KYC requirement. In case of eSign, KYC of Aadhaar will enough for eSign. 

Once the Income Tax Department received your E-signed documents, your PAN will be issued and appear in DigiLocker under “Digital Documents”. 

It will ease your work. Instead of sending the physical copy you can send digitally verified copy stored in DigiLocker.