DIGILOCKER PLATFORM (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Govt Policies/Schemes)

Context: Recently, as students nationwide hurried to their computers for board exam results, many can now access and even obtain their verified marksheets through the Indian government’s DigiLocker platform.

Digilocker Platform

• About: It was initiated in 2015, serves as an application for securely storing users’ digital documents.
• Nodal Agency: Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) 
• Part of: Digital India programme.
• Applications: It facilitates various tasks such as passport applications, academic records review, and identity verification during travel.
• Government's Initiative: DigiLocker aligns with the Indian government’s digital initiative to minimize paper usage and promote accessibility to essential documents.
• User Base and Document Retrieval: As of early May, the platform boasts over 270 million registered users and has facilitated the retrieval of nearly 6.7 billion documents.
• Purpose and Significance: DigiLocker serves as a paperless solution, ensuring users have access to updated documents, aiding in identity verification and credential authentication.
• Combating Fraud and Inaccuracy: By providing digitally verified documents, DigiLocker helps officials in verifying identities and credentials accurately, minimizing the risk of fraudulent or outdated documentation.

Significance of Digilocker

• It has standard security measures in place including 2048 Bit RSA SSL encryption, multi-factor authentication (OTP verification), consent systems, timed log outs, and security audits.
• However, any government database that stores citizens’ information and documents is inevitably an attractive target for hackers who steal user data and sell it on the dark web.