12014 - What is the Indian government’s DigiLocker platform? - Open Gov Asia

What is the Indian government’s DigiLocker platform?

Though usage remains limited, increased integration with government services and uptake by citizens could make it a key driver in India’s shift to e-governance.

08/09/2017

By Priyankar Bhunia

Digital Locker ecosystem (Image credit: MeitY)

On September 7, the Indian government announced the integration of Driving Licenses (DL) & Vehicle Registration Certificates (RC) with its dedicated cloud storage space service, called Digital Locker or DigiLocker. Following this integration people will no longer need to carry around physical copies of their RCs and Driving Licences.

They can instead access digital copies of the same on their mobile phones via the DigiLocker mobile app. DL and RC documents can now be issued directly by the authorities to the DigiLockers of individuals in digital formats. These digital copies can be shared with other departments as identity and address proof.

They will also be used for on the spot verification through the citizens’ mobile, by various law enforcement authorities like the Traffic Police. In addition to boosting convenience, this will also result in assured authenticity of such documents and reduction of administrative overhead.

Education Boards have started issuing digitally signed copies of marksheets and graduation certificates to candidates into DigiLocker, in addition to the traditional hard copies. Banks (here and here) are integrating their digital banking systems with DigiLocker. Digital LPG subscription vouchers are available in DigiLocker through a partnership between the Ministry of Petroleum and public sector petroleum companies, such as Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd.

So, what is DigiLocker?

In May this year,  NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, released its Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20. The Agenda identified three key enablers, to provide the backbone for digitisation of the government’s end-to-end service delivery. One is the by now well-known Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique national identity number, assigned by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Over 85% of India’s population had enrolled as of July 2017.

While Aadhaar is supposed to take care of the identity and authentication aspects, eSign and digital lockers are expected to provide two other crucial pieces of the e-governance jigsaw.

DigiLocker, which was officially launched in July 2015, provides a dedicated cloud storage space to Indian citizens who sign up for an account. It provides a platform for digital issuance and verification of documents & certificates, such as driving licenses, voter identification, school certificates etc. 

mage credit: MeitY

There are three primary stakeholders in the DigiLocker system: 1) Issuer: Entity issuing e-documents to individuals in a standard format and making them electronically available e.g. Education Bords, Registrar Office, Income Tax department, etc.; 2) Requester: Entity requesting secure access to a particular e-document stored within a repository (e.g. University, Passport Office, Regional Transport Office, etc.); and 3) Resident: An individual who uses the Digital Locker service based on Aadhaar number.

The main technology components of the DigiLocker system are the Repository (Collection of e-documents that is exposed via standard APIs for secure, real-time access); an Access Gateway (a secure online mechanism for requesters to access e-documents from various repositories in real-time using Uniform Resource Indicator or URI, a string of characters used to identify a resource) and the DigiLocker Portal.

Account creation

An account can be created by using a mobile number which is authenticated by sending an OTP (one-time password), followed by the selection of a username & password.

In January 2017, UIDAI was integrated with DigiLocker as a registered issuer. After the DigiLocker account is successfully created, the citizen can voluntarily provide their Aadhaar number to avail additional services. The Aadhaar authentication can be done either via an OTP sent to an Aadhaar registered mobile number or by using fingerprint.

Adding documents

Documents are added to DigiLocker via two routes. The first is a push mechanism, where the issuing authority’s database is seeded with the Aadhaar number of the citizen. Once a registered of the document issues an e-document for a particular Aadhaar number and the respective DigiLocker account already exists for that Aadhaar number, the URI for that document will be get pushed automatically into DigiLocker.

When the issuer database does not contain the seeded Aadhaar number but the issuer has a partnership with DigiLocker, citizens can log into DigiLocker and pull their record from the issuer database using some common search parameters. Once the record is fetched, a permanent link to it can be saved in the issued document section.

In both cases described above, the URI (link) is available in the issued documents section. This link directly fetches the document in real-time from the original data source.

Citizens can also upload scanned copies of their legacy documents in their accounts. These legacy documents can be electronically signed using the eSign facility.

The documents issued into DigiLocker do not exist in the form of a separate copy. Only a reference link to the original source is provided. Whereas, for the documents uploaded by the citizens can be accessed in a manner similar to Google Drive or DropBox. 1 GB of storage space is provided for the uploaded documents.

Benefits

The platform enables citizens to access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online. It reduces the administrative overhead of government departments through an efficient, paperless process. It also makes it easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly by the registered issuers. Self-uploaded documents can be digitally signed using the eSign facility (which is similar to the process of self-attestation).

DigiLocker mobile app screenshots (Image credit: MeitY)

Uptake

According to the latest statistics, as of August 2017, there were more than 8 million registered users in DigiLocker (around 0.6% of India’s population on a base of around 1.3 billion). There are 34 issuer organisations and 14 requestor organisations at the moment. The states of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had the highest number of Aadhaar-linked accounts at 316805, 270602 and 254457 respectively.

The complete list of documents, registered issuers and requesting authorities can be accessed under different tabs on the statistics page: https://digilocker.gov.in/public/dashboard.

In March 2017, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) invited applications for licensing of Digital Locker Service Providers (DLSPs). Applicants will build their digital locker service in conformance to the Digital Locker Technology Framework and security and procedural guidelines published by the Digital Locker Authority.

Usage by citizens needs to increase significantly, which in turn would require more central and state government departments to come on board and start issuing documents digitally, before Digilocker can make a real difference. But if implemented correctly, DigiLocker could be a key component in a successful transition to e-governance. 

Priyankar Bhunia

Priyankar is based out of our Singapore office and is part of the editorial team. An engineer and MBA by education, he has prior experience in investment banking, media and tech startups. He spends his spare time reading and rambling.

11285 - Safe in the cloud - The Hindu

Safe in the cloud

Shiva Shankar Iyer

MAY 07, 2017 17:00 IST

DigiLocker aims to help students submit applications without the hassle of getting the documents attested

Tired of running around to get important documents attested while filling out different applications? The Government of India has an innovative solution to save you all the trouble. 

DigiLocker, is a cloud-based platform introduced by the government through which important documents are digitally protected. It is for issue and verification of documents such as marksheets, driving licence, domicile certificate and so on.

Authenticity ensured

It makes sure that fake documents are eliminated through Aadhaar-enabled authentication. The documents stored in the cloud can be accessed in electronic and printable formats and also shared with various agencies. DigiLocker ensures privacy and security to the owner of the documents and the person requesting them. Both the owner and the applicant must register on the DigiLocker portal with a unique user ID and password.

Rahul, a pre-university student, is in the process of applying for his higher studies to various colleges and universities. Every educational institution requires several documents for admission. They comprise marksheets of Class X and XII, migration certificate, transfer certificate, among other documents. These have to be duly attested by a gazetted officer or a government official to verify their authenticity.

During admission, if Rahul misplaces a single document, he loses his chances of securing a seat at his preferred institution. Entities such as CBSE are already part of DigiLocker.

How it functions

There are three stakeholders in a digital locker mechanism. In the education sector, there is the school or the Board which issues marksheets in an electronic format which can be stored in a repository.

The requester is an entity, such as a university, who requests secure access to a particular document. Students can use the service based on Aadhaar and one-time-password authentication with an exclusive storage space of 1 GB. Once the student uploads the documents to DigiLocker and e-signs them, he/she can provide different entities access to them upon request.

Instead of taking multiple printouts of the same document, getting it attested by a government officer and submitting it to relevant authorities, students can provide their DigiLocker link and grant access. Old documents in physical format can also be digitised and uploaded. DigiLocker seems to be the future of document management.

As the Internet is required to store and access the data in the repository, the government must come out with policies to bridge the digital divide. Computer literacy and Internet availability are essential for this project to be successful, helping even rural students make use of paperless college admissions.

The author is a first-year student of industrial and production engineering, National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.

10423 - A cloud-based virtual storage DigiLocker - Deccan Chronicle

A cloud-based virtual storage DigiLocker

INDIATECHONLINE | ANAND PARTHASARATHY

Published

Sep 12, 2016, 10:00 am IST

Government’s Digilocker service, gives every Indian a virtual document archive.

A cloud-based virtual storage where every citizen can store important personal documents in digital form

Every new product or initiative needs a 'killer app' to kickstart it. It is over a year since the Prime Minister 'launched' the DigiLocker -- a cloud-based virtual storage where every citizen can store important personal documents in digital form. The actual roll-out took another nine months till April this year. Even then only pitifully small number of states -- Andhra Pradesh, Telengna, Kerala, Odisha and Delhi -- linked their e-district services to DigiLocker.

It is only last week, that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, integrated Driving licenses and Vehicle Registration Certificates DigiLocker. Now finally, the idea of digitizing one's key documents and storing them in the Cloud begins to make sense for most of us. Like PAN Card, Aadhaar number and Voter ID Card, the driving license has become a key element of personal identification beyond its obvious need when driving. Many of us carry photocopies of our RCwhen driving, preferring to store the original safely at home. Now you can upload driving license and RC to your Digilocker -- in fact if you have a DigiLocker account, a new document will be directly issued to your locker. When demanded, you can show authorities your documents on your mobile phone.

Creating your own DigiLocker is simple: Go to digilocker.gov.in and use your mobile phone number to get your locker. It makes sense to link your Aadhaar number to the locker, since it automatically uploads all the documents that you have linked to your Aadhaar card. You can also link other important personal documents -- birth or marriage certificates, school leaving certificates, degrees and diplomas, passports and visas. You get 1GB of free space.

For some years now, I have been storing my key personal documents in free cloud storage provided by Gmail (Google Drive), Windows Live (OneDrive) or YahooMail (a massive 1TB of storage through Dropbox). You never know when it will come in handy. I once landed in Singapore and found I had misplaced the paper visa I was carrying. But in that tech-savvy country I had no problem in entering: the officer at the immigration desk was happy to let me show him a scan of the visa, I had uploaded to my OneDrive and stamped my passport after verifying it.

Even if you are doing likewise with one or other free cloud storage services, it makes sense for Indians to sign up for Digilocker: Increasingly public services will be geared to read directly from your own personal locker and save you the hassle of carrying various ID and address proofs. New government docs s will be issued directly to your locker. This is a revolutionary step forward -- as demat or dematerializing stocks and share certificates was, 20 years ago.

We Indians have a canny sense of what is good for us. Already in its few months of operation, the DigiLocker has attracted 2.1 million users, who between them uploaded 2.5 million documents. This in spite of a wobbly experience at times ( as my homework for doing this story, I enrolled -- but found the system does not always allow me to access my locker. There seems to be a traffic jam after the announcement about driving license and RC book.) I'm guessing things will settle down -- and every one of us, can upload our precious document assets and be assured they are safe in Cyberia!

-IndiaTechOnline

10422 - The DigiLocker was supposed to cut down paperwork but less than 0.1% of Indians are using it - Scroll.In

DIGITAL DIVIDE

The DigiLocker was supposed to cut down paperwork but less than 0.1% of Indians are using it

by Mayank Jain

Published Yesterday · 06:30 am.  

The official data shows that the platform has not enthused as many users as the government expected.

The government has been working hard to make all of India go digital – but its initiatives don't seem to be having the desired effect. Not yet anyway.

DigiLocker was launched in July last year as a secure platform for Indian citizens to store and access their documents on an electronic repository provided by the government of India. This is one of the major planks of the Digital India programme – which aims to take government services online and make the entire country digitally literate – but it does not seem to have enthused too many so far.

To popularise it further, the government on Wednesday integrated it with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to allow people to store a digital version of their driving licence and vehicle documents on the DigiLocker, sparing them the trouble of having to keep the hard copies on them at all times.

More than a year since its release, the platform has about 1.1 million people signed up as users, according to the official statistics on the DigiLocker website.

This might seem like an impressive number – but compare it to the country’s population of about 1.21 billion, or even its internet-using population of 350 million – and it becomes a drop in the ocean.

As this chart shows, only 0.09% of Indians are on DigiLocker – this is less than one user per 1,000 people in the country. DigiLocker is being used by 0.33% of the online population in the country, which implies that there are 33 users per 10,000 people on the internet from India.

Digital dreams

When it was launched by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, the government had envisaged a cloud-based and secure storage platform that would cover the entire population, make it easier to procure and access important documents – including mark sheets, degrees and tax papers – and reduce paperwork as well as save time.

“In effect Digital Locker will touch every citizen's life by bringing in lot of convenience and therefore fulfilling the government's vision of a citizen centric governance model of providing services at the door-step of citizens,” the government said in a press release when the locker reached one lakh users in the first 100 days of its launch.

While the official website claims that the number of users is now about 2.1 million, the state-wise figures add up to only 1.1 million people on the platform.

Among the states, Maharashtra has most DigiLocker users in absolute numbers (more than 1 lakh), while Arunachal, Nagaland and Mizoram have less than 1,000 users each.

When the population of each state is taken into account, however, the picture changes. When adjusted for population, a mere 0.7% Sikkim’s population uses the service – and this is the highest percentage among Indian states. Maharashtra, with the highest number of DigiLocker users, has a much lower percentage of those on the service – 0.12%. The national capital, meanwhile, has just 0.17% of its population on the service.

Lock up

Citizens can use DigiLocker to store up to 10 megabytes of personal documents online.

Since the 10MB storage isn’t enticing enough, considering that internet users can avail themselves of at least 1GB of storage for free through private services such as Google Drive or Dropbox, the government is trying to push usage by integrating several departments with the service and allowing users to access more documents in real time from anywhere.

Among those enrolled so far include the road transport ministry, Maharashtra’s department of registry and stamps and educational bodies such as the Central Board of Secondary Education, which is now trying to release mark sheets and results of competitive exams online.

Though the government hoped that these initiatives would increase its usage, technical glitches have prevented several people from using the service.

A student who gave her National Engineering Entrance Exam this year spoke to Scroll.in about why she didn't sign up for DigiLocker even though her results were released on the platform.

“They allowed us to access results instantly on the platform but it required a sign up using the Aadhaar number,” a student, said on the condition of anonymity. “I tried signing up thrice using my phone number but never received the one-time password and then my Aadhaar verification didn’t go through so I could never sign up.”

The service is linked to the government's biometric-based Aadhaar identification system, but it is not mandatory to have an Aadhaar number, according to the website.

Privacy concerns

Another reason why people are hesitant to sign up for the service are privacy concerns about storing important and private documents on a central repository.

“Any large linked database with personal information is a serious threat to citizen’s data,” G Nagarjuna, a researcher at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in Mumbai told Scroll.in earlier. “There exists no agency that could secure their data till date without any possibilities of data theft.”

Experts said storing private information, such as biometric and passport data, on the service could pose security and privacy concerns.

Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society told Scroll.in over email that the project can have serious consequences if it is not encrypted well.

“Unless the cryptography and architecture is organised in such a manner that only the citizens will have access, there can be very serious consequences for the individual’s right to privacy,” he said.

Internal resistance

Those working for the project said the usage of the locker is going to go up if more government departments start issuing documents digitally to the locker, instead of handing over hard copies, as this will prompt users to sign up.

If the usage has to be increased, more departments need to come on board and start releasing documents digitally, said Debabrata Nayak, additional director of the National E-Governance Division, which implemented the project.

“It’s only when more departments start implementing digitisation and issuing digital documents that we will see a jump in the number of users because Digital Locker is pushed like that,” Nayak said, adding that National E-Governance Division is facing a fair bit of resistance from the departments.

“But not all departments are doing it yet because it requires a massive change in their work processes and we are trying to get them on board.”

Aadhaar woes

DigiLocker is designed as a push as well as pull service, which means that it should allow departments to issue as well as request documents from users. For this, users need to link their Aadhaar numbers to the locker. This is proving to be a problem, because most departments are not linking the documents they release to Aadhaar just yet, and not all users are registered with the unique identification system.

Moreover, the validity of Aadhaar is under question in the Supreme Court over privacy concerns voiced by the civil society.

An activist had moved the Supreme Court last year over the government making the Aadhaar number mandatory to sign up for DigiLocker. While the petition was quashed on procedural grounds, the government quickly moved to allow users to sign up without their Aadhaar numbers. However, the usability of the locker is restricted for such users.

Nayak said that non-Aadhaar-linked users can only upload their own documents on the system, without being able to use any other facility that DigiLocker claims to provide.

“Earlier Aadhaar was necessary but we changed it because people demanded access, but for most services, like getting government documents or requesting documents, it’s [Aadhaar] necessary,” he said. Nayak said this is because Aadhaar is the only way the government can identify the person who is being issued documents.

So what can one do without an Aadhaar on the DigiLocker?

“Without Aadhaar you can dump your garbage in it, which means you can upload your own files on the digital locker system,” Nayak said, “but why would you do that if you have Google Drive and Dropbox-like services?”

We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.

10393 - DigiLocker Enables Digital Driving Licence and Vehicle Registration Papers - NDTV

DigiLocker Enables Digital Driving Licence and Vehicle Registration Papers

Gopal Sathe, 7 September 2016

HIGHLIGHTS

• With DigiLocker you now have the option to keep a digital driving license
• You can download the DigiLocker Android app and link your Aadhaar
• The app has real issues with stability and reliability right now

With our records getting increasingly digitised, the continuing reliance on physical documents can be a little inconvenient. A government initiative could change this, and we are seeing some of the first fruits get underway now. You can now get a digital driving license and vehicle registration that you can carry around in your phone, with all the requisite security measures.

A year ago, the government launched the DigiLocker, a digital locker for all your government documents. Now, DigiLocker has partnered with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to allow you to get a digital driving license and vehicle registration certificate. Once your state equips police and other officials with the app to verify these documents, you'll be able to leave your physical documents behind when you're driving.

Using this is pretty simple - you sign up to the DigiLocker Android application which verifies your phone number using an OTP. You then need to enter your Aadhaar details into the app to start uploading documents - you can upload your own scanned documents, and then there are issued documents, which are e-documents issued by the different government agencies.

Up until now, you had to upload the driver's licence yourself, but with the platform launched, it gets simpler to have a digital copy of your driver's license and registration. These documents can be viewed by officials who will have their own version of the DigiLocker app, and it can also be used to issue penalty points.

It's a big step towards making it easier to have control over all your documents, though in practice, the DigiLocker app and website report frequent access problems - multiple commenters on Google Play complain about not getting OTPs, and frequent crashes - something we also experienced.

When it works, the app seems fairly useful, but there are definite issues in execution that we hope will be resolved soon.

Subscribe to Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast via iTunes or RSS and just hit the play button below to listen to our iPhone 7 special episode.

10242 - Aadhaar cards: Digital locker for IGR services to start from August - Indian Express

Aadhaar cards: Digital locker for IGR services to start from August

The programme was delayed for the last three months and IGR officials are in the final round of talks with the National Informatics Centre before initiating the process in the coming month.

After a delay of at least three months, the Inspectorate General of Registration and Stamps (IGR) will initiate the digital locker system from August for e-registration, where an individual will be able to save the agreement copy of the property, Index II as well as the receipt in soft format on the centre’s digital locker system.By: Express News Service | Pune | Published:July 18, 2016 3:17 am

The programme was delayed for the last three months and IGR officials are in the final round of talks with the National Informatics Centre before initiating the process in the coming month.

“All the technical issues have been sorted out and the NIC should be ready with the system by the coming month,” said an official from the IGR department.

The digital locker can be operated if one has an Aadhaar card. With Aadhaar coverage having increased in the state, the department is ready to roll out the services soon.

10065 - Land dept to give cloud space to Aadhaar holders - TNN

Land dept to give cloud space to Aadhaar holders

Jaideep Deogharia | TNN | May 30, 2016, 08.04 AM IST

Ranchi: Going a step further on the path of digital revolution, the department of revenue, registration and land reforms has offered to give citizens with Aadhaar numbers two government documents directly in their digital lockers. The documents include registered deed, generated after sale and purchase of land, and certificate of registration of any society. 

The department of information and technology has asked coordinators of Pragya Kendra to open their counters at the 42 registration offices in the state and offer the facility to Aadhaar holders. 

Under the digital locker scheme offered by the Centre, any individual can open an account and book 1GB space on cloud to upload personal documents in soft copy and once the user links the account with his Aadhaar number, all government documents can be obtained in the same locker.

Rajiv Ranjan, director of revenue and land reforms, said at present the only department prepared to 'push' official documents to citizen's digital locker in Jharkhand is revenue, registration and land reforms which started offering the service since last Friday. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Digital India campaign on July1, 2015 and Jharkhand government decided to join the movement immediately. It was only due to technical preparations that it took around 11 months to go live," he said.

Though users can open their digital locker anywhere in the country by going to the government of India weblink, the facilities offered by various government departments become accessible only after seeding of the Aadhaar number. 

IT secretary, Sunil Kumar Barnwal, admits that even if the rate of aadhaar registration is very high in Jharkhand, chances of people having digital lockers or opening them on their own is bleak. "To make the system robust, we have directed every Pragya Kendra to offer help in opening digital lockers for the citizens, password of which can later be changed by the individual users," he said.

The officials in the state government claimed complete security of the digital lockers saying that the server is being handled by the Centre. "One has to be particular that they don't share password of their digital lockers with others because it is as valuable as ATM pin number," Ranjan cautioned. 

9753 - Unlocking the full potential of the Digital Locker - Financial Express

Unlocking the full potential of the Digital Locker

By Express Computer on April 5, 2016

By Rajesh Aggarwal

My team in Department of Information Technology, Maharashtra designed and launched the Digital Locker more than one and a half year ago. And then shared it with Government of India. Unfortunately, it still has not caught public imagination. This article tells the story of Digital Locker and its potential uses.

After the formation of new Government in the Centre in 2014, the Prime Minister had asked various Secretaries to make Presentations to him. On the web, I saw some slides made by Secretary Deity Shri Ram Sewak Sharma, and one bullet point was “Digital Locker”. I quickly assembled my young and gung-ho Team of consultants and programmers in Maharashtra, and in less than two weeks, we had the basic Locker up and running on our State Cloud. Later, on request from Government of India, the Team Maharashtra was happy to hand over the code and the design, for wider usage. ( www.digilocker.gov.in )

Here is what was in my mind while designing the Locker:

First is the Signup/Login method. We were clear that only a citizen having Aadhaar number will be able to Signup. You don’t have Aadhaar – sorry, then the Digital Locker is not for you! The philosophy behind this thinking will be amply clear in next few paragraphs.

Aadhaar provides easy, anytime, anywhere, faceless (remote) identity check. Now, even OTP based eKYC or eSign is recognized by law. However, presently Aadhaar database has not too many mobile numbers, nor can we be very sure about their accuracy. Hence, I always advocate having a “verified mobile” tag in Aadhaar centralized database (CIDR). This would happen when a citizen does biometric (fingerprint or Iris) authentication, enters 10-digit mobile number, gets an OTP (one time password) on that mobile, and enters that OTP in the application.

Only then this “verified mobile” flag should be ticked in central Aadhaar database. Thereafter, for all times to come, except for certain critical things, mobile OTP based Aadhaar linked eKYC or eSign can be used. Probably, Samsung and others will come with Aadhaar based fingerprint sensors or even Iris sensors on their mobiles in future (sensors now cost hardly a few dollars, and can be miniaturized), but till that time, non-biometric based, just mobile OTP based authentication systems will lead to much wider use of eKYC and eSign.

Let me also explain the difference between eKYC and eSign. Bank account opening, getting a driving license or a passport or a SIM card etc. – they require the citizen to bring a bundle of papers to prove you are you (KYC- Know Your Customer requirements). Instead of carrying a bundle of papers, you can just key in your 12 digit Aadhaar number, and do an online authentication – this is eKYC.

eSign is another kind of digital signature, which replaces wet (ink) signature. Our CCA (Controller of Certifying Authorities) had according to IT Act, 2000 (Amended in 2008), allowed dongle based digital signatures. Citizen has to purchase this physical dongle after an elaborate KYC procedure, remember a PIN number, renew the signature after every two years, and spend about Rupees 500 per annum. Now, the Aadhaar based eSign is also legally recognized under IT Act. No KYC, lifelong valid, zero cost. Just do mobile OTP based or biometric based Aadhaar online authentication, and any document gets digitally signed. Now Income Tax returns are using this method, and you don’t have to physically send any ink-signed papers.

The tiny nation of Estonia has embedded citizens’ digital signatures into mobile SIM cards, leading to some great applications (including electronic voting). 

Imagine if we can embed Aadhaar number into our SIM cards – then eKYC/eSign become further dramatic. Imagine one click, two factor authentication through your mobile for all kinds of payments, signatures, voting, and so on.

One use of Digital Locker to a citizen is obviously to store his/her “Government Papers”. These are typically Birth certificate, domicile certificate, caste certificate, income certificate of parents, matriculation certificate, education degrees, driving license, passport, property related papers, tax related papers, investments/ savings/ pension/ insurance related papers, employment/business license papers, Will related papers, and so on. Final certificate to upload would be the Death certificate (maybe pushed by Municipal Authorities into your locker, resulting in automatically handing over the Digital Vault to the Heirs mentioned in the Will uploaded earlier on the Digital Locker).

Mostly the citizens have “original”, ink-signed and stamped papers available with them. These can be scanned and uploaded. The Aadhaar based eSign will automatically kick in and the scanned papers will carry the digital eSign tag with time stamp (of time of upload). This will be like new-age self-attestation.

These days, a few government organizations have started issuing digitally signed papers (e.g. under eDistrict project). These certificates received over email or downloaded from the concerned website, can directly be uploaded by the citizen to his/her digital locker.

Third, a few authorities (e.g. some school boards) have opened their databases through APIs. Such authorities can be encouraged to collaborate with Digital Locker. Thus, a student can just tell his Locker his board roll number, and then any potential employer or college can dynamically pick up the results from the Board database. There will be great ease of use and full confidence when the Board also has the Aadhaar number embedded in its database. Now pension, scholarship, income tax and many databases are linking with Aadhaar, so this dynamic sharing based on citizen consent will become more important in years to come. The farmer will no longer run around to obtain copy of his land title, he will just tell his plot number to the bank, who will obtain server-to-server land record details and sanction the loan.

Please note that where documents issued by the Government authorities are available in that organization’s database, then rather than uploading an electronic copy into the locker, it is better to just provide unique reference number of that document in the digital locker. The most up-to-date copy corresponding to that document (e.g. citizen may have got address modified on passport) will then be pulled whenever needed. (Single Source of Truth concept)

Ok, the citizen has Signed up for the Locker, uploaded or linked the certificate details, now what next? Various Departments or private organizations have to tie-up with Digital Locker authority to make use of the content (pull content or push content). The Authority has to define Metadata Tags and Standards. When a citizen uploads a scanned Birth certificate, it has to go into a bucket/folder or, tagged with document type called “Birth Certificate”.

Maybe the Name, and date-of-birth have also to be tagged in a well-defined Metadata standard, so that others can make use of it when they pick up this document. The income certificate may similarly define metadata standards/tags for Year-of-assessment annual income in rupees, and so on. Thus, if the citizen uploads scanned document, he or she has to choose the correct document-type, and then key in the data in the core metadata fields associated with that document-type. If citizen uploads digitally-issued certificate, or if the concerned Issuer organization (e.g. School Board) pushes that certificate into the Digital Locker, the document-type and the core metadata has to get filled automatically. Now, let us see how this benefits the citizens or “Requestor organization”.

The citizen logs into Locker, and clicks on “I need a Passport” link. The Passport department software kicks in, and says – “Ok, I see from your Birth Certificate that you are 20 years old, and I see from your Educational certificates that you have passed Matriculation – so your passport won’t be stamped Emigration-Check-Required, I also see your address from your Aadhaar database – no more papers required- I am passing this information to Police authorities to visit your Home for verification – aha, Police system says that they will be visiting you tomorrow evening – here is the name and phone of the Constable who will visit you …. And yes, about the fees.. since you have linked your wallet/bank account with your Locker.. I made a request to bank and have received the fees.. Just fill in these few additional details to complete the Application process … ”.

The Locker software is smart. (My wish list.. ). Once the police verifies the address, and passport is issued, the Passport details automatically go into the Locker, and also the Address part gets stamped with the fact that Police verified on this date. This increases the Trustworthiness of the Address component of Locker. Also, since the Date-of-birth scanned document and Matriculation certificate were used by Passport department, their “trust factor” also goes up. Locker software maintains all kinds of log-trails for this purpose.

“Trust Factor” of any document is important. Scanned documents uploaded by citizen can be forged. Hence, as more and more departments use these documents and verify them, the “trust factor” increases. Another way for the citizen is to pay for verifying these old, legacy documents. NSDL, or other designated Agencies can take Rupees 500 or whatever from a citizen, then visit the concerned Municipal office to verify if indeed the birth citizen was issued as per their records, and then put a digital stamp “scanned document verified by NSDL on … date by physically verifying record with the Municipal Authorities”. Same can be done with Educational degrees. The employers, including private companies like Tata and Wipro, spend lots of time, effort and money in these kinds of verification checks at the time of recruitment. Thus, if the documents in the Locker have enough “trust-factor” by above methods, this can be helpful to so many stakeholders.

In Maharashtra, the joint venture company MahaOnline was implementing eDistrict project, with digital back-end work flow resulting in digitally signed certificates by tahsildars etc. Each Application Form was re-designed to truly leverage the Aadhaar ecosystem. A link “do eKYC” would enable the CSC (Citizen Service Centre) operator to ask citizen if he or she had Aadhaar number, click consent field, do biometric authentication, and then quick eKYC would populate Name, Address and Photograph automatically from Aadhaar central database.

The citizen sitting at Home could also do this, including mobile OTP based eKYC. Next was to add a link in the Form: “Pick up relevant documents from my Digital Locker”. If this particular Application Form requires 4 documents, and 3 are already in the Locker, then the software says “ok, I found 3 documents, this fourth one is missing, can you just upload it?”. Loop is complete when Tahsildar issues Digitally signed certificate, and eDistrict software pushes this into the Locker. Also, the “trust-factor” of 4 documents used by Tahsildar increases.

Can our Regulators like CCA, RBI, IRDA, SEBI, TRAI, UIDAI, CERC etc. agree that KYC process can be radically modified after Aadhaar bill has been passed? Hundreds of crores of Rupees can be saved if Aadhaar based eKYC and eSign are allowed by the Regulators.

The citizen logging into Digital Locker can be treated as “already authenticated and KYC compliant”. Can the links in Digital Locker be “one click and get a bank account”, “one click and get a demat account for share market” and so on? Can Paytm tie-up with Digital Locker and throw a pop-up on login – “Hey, I have pre-approved Paytm wallet with free Rupees 100 thrown in for you… Just click here to start using it..”?

Now comes the real game-changer part! Entitlements! You are a student, a girl student, aged 16 years, studying in tenth standard in a village school, your family income is about 3 lakh rupees per annum, and you are from SC category. Are you aware which Government schemes are available for you?

Imagine that all departments weave their scheme eligibility criteria into the Digital Locker. Imagine the Digital Locker telling you – “Hey, based on your profile in the Locker, I figured that you are entitled to scholarship of Central Social Justice Ministry,  cross-checked that you are not already enrolled there, luckily all the documents required were in your Locker, I sent them across to Social Justice Ministry’s DBT software which approved it immediately, and I hope that you have already received the SMS from your bank regarding the receipt of first instalment of your scholarship”. Dream on …

Can the Digital Locker tell a kid – “Hey, congrats on turning 18 years yesterday … I did some back-end work for you, and have got you added into the Voter list .. here are the details… Would you also like me to apply for your Driving license?… “

Who operates Digital Locker? NIC or CDAC? This probably needs a rethink. Organizations like CDAC and NIC working under Deity should work with stakeholders to set Metadata Standards, to get various Ministries and State Governments to collaborate with Digital Locker (as Issuers as well as Requestors of data). Then it should be left to experts. Just like multiple Repositories are working for Demat in Share Market, same way multiple companies be authorized to operate and offer Digital Locker services to citizens. They can onboard private players (Paytm, Vodafone, SBI, ICICI, Tata, Wipro, Universities, Employers, so many others..), they can offer verification services for a fee, and so on. One could try the Freemium Model… basic 20 Mb storage free, consent based sharing for government services free, while charging for other services and extra storage.

Thus the Digital Locker can be much beyond just a dumb storage for your documents. I find the finer debate missing among the stakeholders, and hope that this article will stir up some debate. I am deeply aware of difference between Hype and Ground Reality (between what-can-be and what-really-is). For a balancing act, you may read “Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology” by Toyama and also about “Rosser Reeves Trap”. (Just Google)

– Rajesh Aggarwal did his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi (1983-87) and then joined IAS (Indian Administrative Service) in 1989. He has served in various positions in Maharashtra and Delhi. He has written a number of papers on eGovernance, and handled a large number of eGovernance projects. This article is written in a personal capacity, and not from an official standpoint

- See more at: http://computer.financialexpress.com/news/unlocking-the-full-potential-of-the-digital-locker/16921/#sthash.VFHhyVvx.dpuf

9671 - Six benefits of having an Aadhaar Card - India Info On Line

Six benefits of having an Aadhaar Card

India Infoline News Service | Mumbai | March 27, 2016 14:59 IST

As per the earlier mandate of the UPA government, Aadhar enabled bank account was the basis of the transfer of subsidy amount directly to the bank account.

As the government is emphasizing on linking Aadhar card with bank accounts, there is a need to review some of the benefits that are attached with Aadhaar card. Before delving on the subject, it is important to note that Aadhar number is a 12 digit UID (unique identification number). 

Here are the benefits that come with Aadhar card. 

1. Direct Benefits Transfer (DBTL) - As per the earlier mandate of the UPA government, Aadhar enabled bank account was the basis of the transfer of subsidy amount directly to the bank account. The process remains the same during the Modi-led government as the subsidy amount gets credited to bank account. However, if an individual does not require subsidy, then he/she can opt out of the scheme. 

2. Scholarships - Students entitled to receive a scholarship from the government will get the amount credited to the Aadhaar enabled bank account. The need for linking Aadhaar to the bank account for receiving scholarships is implemented only for a few select Indian states. 

3. Access to DigiLocker - The government’s initiative to allow every individual store their personal documents on its server through DigiLocker. The access to this facility requires one to have a valid Aadhaar card number. 

4. Monthly Pension payments - For the convenient and seamless transfer of pension amount, the government has made it mandatory for pensioners of select states to register their Aadhaar number with the respective department to receive pension payments. The move is also intended to curb fraudulent practices of claiming pension by beneficiaries. 

5. Payment of Provident Fund - The government has also made it mandatory for employees to link their Aadhaar number with the EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organization) for claiming the proceeds. 6. Digital Life Certificate - Under the ‘Jeevan Praman for Pensioners’ initiative, the government will put an end to the woes of pensioners by doing away with the need of being physically present to receive the pension. In this scheme, the pensioners will be granted digital life certificate, which will enable smooth transfer of pension payments to their Aadhaar enabled bank accounts. - 

See more at: http://www.indiainfoline.com/article/news-personal-finance/aadhaar-card-six-benefits-of-having-an-aadhaar-card-116032700017_1.html#sthash.UvruhG1k.dpuf

9234 - DEITY working on alternative authentication means along with Aadhaar to revive Digital India projects - Economic Times

DEITY working on alternative authentication means along with Aadhaar to revive Digital India projects

Surabhi Agarwal, ET Bureau Jan 1, 2016, 04.29AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court's restrictions over the Aadhaar project has taken the wind out of several marque projects under the Digital India programme, including the Digital Locker project. The department of electronics and information technology (DEITY) is now working on alternatives that will act as means of authentication along with Aadhaar to revive some of these projects.

According to a senior government official, there are around five projects under Digital India for which alternatives are being discussed currently.

Take for instance the DigiLocker project, which is a way to store, receive and authenticate documents on the virtual locker on the Internet. It made a good start after being launched by the Prime Minister in July this year only to have stagnated in the following months due to the uncertainty over their linkage with Aadhaar.

The number of users registered on the platform swelled by 71.8% to 8,96,527 at the end of July but has been registering low single digit growth since August - when the first Supreme Court order came on Aadhaar restricting it use. At the end of December, the number of users who are on the DigiLocker platform 10,50,335.

The official said that for Digilocker, authentication means such as PAN card, e-KYC of the banks, and digital signatures are some of the other options which are being considered. "Even without the Supreme Court's mandate, we have to give other options to citizens since some of them many not have access to Aadhaar," the official added. The person said that by linking these projects only through Aadhaar, the government doesn't want to make it mandatory in any way. "But, the inherent advantage that Aadhaar had of seamless authentication can't be taken away," said the official adding that with authentication means, the government is adding a layer which is the same as verifying documents in physical world.

Other projects which are inherently linked to Aadhaar include esign, Jeevan Pramaan or Digital Life Certificate for pensioners, and Digitise India, the government records digitisation drive project among others.

While Jeevan Pramaan is a biometric enabled system built on Aadhaar for over 10 million pensioner families in India to provide digital life certificates for disbursement of their pensions, e-sign is designed to enable authentication of documents on the fly and on a real-time basis through the Aadhaar authentication platform.

It is being pitched as a convenient alternative for the current process of getting a digital signature, which is cost intensive, time consuming and relatively unsafe.

Similarly under the Digitise India platform, the government has roped in common citizens to digitize its physical records through the crowd sourcing model. The identity and authentication of the crowd agents is done through the Aadhaar number and their remuneration is also credited to their Aadhaar linked bank account number.

ET has reported earlier this week that the government is getting ready to convince the Supreme Court about the use of Aadhaar in improving governance. The Cabinet secretary will helm the drafting of a strategy along with senior government secretaries on extending Aadhaar to more government services.

9007 - National DigiLocker reaches nearly 1M users - Medianama

National DigiLocker reaches nearly 1M users

By Vivek Pai on October 28, 2015

The Government’s National DigiLocker has reached nearly a million users, just a thousand short of the milestone at the time of writing. Overall, the website has stored over 1.069 million documents, indicating that on an average users store less than 2 documents on the platform. The most uploaded document is the Aadhaar card, which is required for signing up on the platform in the first place.

Note that the platform only offers each user dedicated 10 MB of space, which is likely why most people can upload nothing but a high-res scanned copy of their Aadhaar cards. 10 MB per user for a million users equals to about 10 TB in storage, which is slightly less than double the storage space available on my desktop. We really wish the platform provided more space to store other documents as well, buying a few HDDs shouldn’t be this much of a problem for the Government.

On logging in, users can also view issued documents. The platform claims to have issued 4.36 million documents via 2 issuer organizations, the majority of which are income certificates, integrated certificates and residence certificate. Other than this, it also issued caste certificates, one-and-the-same certificate, possession certificate and nativity certificate among others. The two issuing agencies are Mee Seva AP and Kerala eDistrict.

Growth in users peaked in July: Interestingly, the digital locker saw a spurt of growth from May to July, with the number of registered users jumping up from ~200,000 to nearly 900,000. Post this period, and especially in September and October, the registrations have slowed down significantly. Documents uploaded also saw significant growth from May to July, which it continued to witness in the last couple of months, despite the slowdown in number of registrations.

More than 10% of the users came from Maharashtra: State-wise, the highest number of registrations came from Maharashtra with over a 114,000 users, the only state to have over a 100,000 users. Maharashtra is followed by Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Kerala. A few states saw registrations of less than 1000 per state, including Goa, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, while few others didn’t even have 100 users registered on the portal. These include Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and surprisingly New Delhi.

The DigiLocker was launched by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) in February this year. Every user gets 10 MB of dedicated free personal storage space, which is linked to their Aadhaar details. The URI (Uniform Resource Indicator) for every document is also stored in the e-locker, allowing government agencies to directly access the document from the repository.

8372 - Virtual vault race hots up - Telegraph India

Virtual vault race hots up - State fourth, ahead of biggies & chasing Bengal

A.S.R.P. Mukesh Ranchi, July 25: Jharkhand ranks a surprise fourth among states in opening digital lockers on public cloud, breathing down Bengal's neck and looking to overtake it to storm into the top three. Till this evening, Jharkhand clocked 77,126 digital lockers or cyberspace storage for documents, 624 short of Bengal, the current national third. With 93,793 lockers, Maharashtra is on top, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 83,236. A key part of Digital India initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi starting on July 1, the free government scheme of private space on public cloud has attracted enthusiasm in this tribal state where internet penetration is lower than say, Gujarat or Kerala. Everyday, more and more people are opening cyberspace vaults for safe-keeping of their documents - birth, caste and education certificates, PAN, voter ID, property, job papers, driving licence and others. If all goes well, state IT department mandarins are hoping that by next week, the tribal state will take over Bengal. To achieve this, the department is planning to hold vigorous special camps at government and private establishments across the state and in schools of the capital. State IT director U.P. Sah told The Telegraph they sent letters to around 29 big public and private establishments in Jharkhand, including companies, banks and NGOs, as well as all state-run and private schools of Ranchi, on special digital locker camps. "We have deputed officials to follow up with organisations and schools. By Monday, we should be in a position to chart out rosters for camps," Sah said. "Basically, it's as easy as opening an email account. Anyone with an Aadhaar number can create an e-locker," he added. "It will take us time to get close to Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra but as far as Bengal is concerned, contest is neck to neck. A week ago, we were sixth or seven position, but now we have zoomed to fourth," said Sah, also the nodal officer for the state's digital locker project. On best-performing districts in terms of e-lockers, Sah said getting exact break-up was difficult it was handled centrally. "But, locally we have asked our representatives in all districts to compile figures for a review," he added. "If we look at e-lockers created through district Pragya Kendras till July 20, Bokaro tops the state with 7,312 lockers, followed by Pakur and Sahebganj with 5,200 each, Godda and Dumka with 2,500 each. Hazaribagh is in the fag end, below 100. Ranchi, Jamshedpur figures are yet to come but figures aren't much." "I personally believe cities like Jamshedpur, Ranchi have big numbers as Net savvy people would have created their e-lockers individually and not through a Pragya Kendra. A review meeting is scheduled on Monday after which a clearer district segmentation is expected," he added. A cloud in tech jargon is a network of servers on the Internet rather than on the local server of individuals or organisations, thereby allowing larger space to store data and higher speeds to manage and process it while keeping the system cost-effective. Each Aadhaar-linked digital locker, which is hosted on such a cloud by the Indian government, comes with 1GB of free memory space. The locker has five segments: "My Certificates", "My Profile", "My Issuer", "My Requester" and "Directories". When vital documents are stored on e-locker, it helps minimise the use of physical documents. Citizens can access their documents through web portal and mobile application anywhere and anytime. Also, the worry of losing physical documents is eliminated. But, at the same time, the user will be held responsible for the authenticity of all electronic documents he or she stores.

8303 - India's E-Vault to Store Documents on Cloud Draws Crowds - NDTV

India's E-Vault to Store Documents on Cloud Draws Crowds

All India | Press Trust of India | Updated: July 17, 2015 16:14 IST

File Photo PM Modi waves as Cyrus Mistry (R), chairman of Tata Group watches during the launch of -Digital India Week in New Delhi.

BENGALURU:  A key part of the "Digital India" initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the free government scheme that provides a virtual vault in cyberspace for the safe-keep of documents like birth certificates and property papers has attracted 830,075 people.

As easy as opening an e-mail account, the free Digital Locker facility on a cloud, or cyberspace, allows any individual with an Adhaar card and a linked mobile phone to sign up. It's a personal storage space to securely store e-documents and links of such official certificates.

"One of the aims of 'Digital India' is that a person should have private space on a public cloud. It is one of the desirable deliverables of this initiative," Ram Sewak Sharma, secretary in the Department of Information Technology, told IANS in an interview.

"A Digital Locker account is a convenient way of storing certificates in a digitised format. A person can then conveniently see his/her certificates online. Various agencies will also be able to push documents into the locker. These can also be shared electronically," Sharma said.

A "cloud" in computer jargon can be described as a network of servers that is hosted on the Internet rather than on the local server of individuals or organisations, allowing a much larger space to store data, and higher speeds to manage and process the same, in a cost-effective manner.

Each Aadhaar-linked digital locker, which is hosted on such a cloud by the Indian government , comes with 1-GB of free memory space. The locker has five components: "My Certificates", "My Profile", "My Issuer", "My Requester" and "Directories".

"A person has a number of certificates issued to him -- for education, birth, property. When they are digitally stored, it decreases administrative overheads of the government. There will also be less fraud. Whatever you submit, you will be held responsible," Sharma said.

"If a document is found to be forged you cannot deny it," added Sharma.

"From a citizen's perspective, it reduces the hassle of carrying physical documents. Suppose I have a digital locker and there is an agency which has issued a certificate in my name. There is a provision to push that certificate into the digital locker of the individual."

Giving an example, the top official said: "If a Class XII certificate is issued to a person with a 'Digital Locker' it will have a link. This link can be shared. So wherever this certificate is submitted, it can be verified. One knows it is genuine. For the government, it is a great advantage.

"Since Aadhaar is unambiguous, the first stage of a person's authentication is already done."

This kind of infrastructure was unique to India and the government wanted to leverage that, said Sharma, adding that the potential could be guaged by the fact that more than 850 million unique identification numbers (Aadhaar) had thus far been issued to people.

So far, the 830,075 people who have signed up for the service have uploaded 430,324 documents. Maharashtra has the highest subscribers with Maharashtra 88,091 accounts, Uttar Pradesh is next with 79,499, followed by West Bengal with 74,453.

"Even the American social security number does not have a biometric database," he said. "Using the biometric authentication process, one can also link a mobile number to his/her identity. So my mobile number effectively becomes my digital identity."

Sharma said to cater to the large unlettered population of India, the government has also put an assisted mechanism in place to help open Digital Lockers. "One common service centre in each Panchayat of the country will be offering all kinds of digital services."

He explained that through these centres, one can do banking, get birth certificates and ration cards. "We have got 100,000 common service centres in the country which can basically provide assistance," said Sharma.

"This is the social inclusion aspect of a 'Digital Locker'."

Highlights of the scheme:

- Free space of 1 GB to securely store documents and links of official e-documents;

- eSign service to digitally sign documents online;

- Sharing of e-documents online with any registered requester;

- Secure access for requesters to documents in digital lockers;

- Documents will have authenticity to eliminate fakes;

- People will be held liable for veracity of documents uploaded;

- Options for several documents: Educational certificates, PAN card, Voter ID card;

- Can eventually be used in a host of domains: Passports, college admissions, driving licences.

Story First Published: July 17, 2015 16:14 IST

8290 - Using cloud, mobility, analytics to make Digital India - Live Mint

Using cloud, mobility, analytics to make Digital India

The government plans to make India a truly digital nation by offering a plethora of e-governance services across sectors

Leslie D’Monte  |  Moulishree Srivastava 

The government has now come up with a Digital Locker that allows you to store such important files, and lets you authenticate them online with your Aadhaar number.

Imagine being asked to submit your birth certificate to your employer by the end of the day. Most people would typically have to rummage through piles of files at home to locate it, making it a harrowing task.

The government has now come up with a Digital Locker that allows you to store such important files, and lets you authenticate them online with your Aadhaar number. It also wants to allow publishers to upload their books online so that teachers, students or guardians can choose from a combination of these books and create online satchels or e-bastas (basta is Hindi for satchel), or even download them onto an e-reader like Kindle or as portable document format (pdf) files.

These are just a few of the examples that are part of the government’s ambitious programme to make India a truly digital nation, by offering a plethora of e-governance services across sectors like healthcare, education and banking—all in a bid to introduce transparency in the system and enable inclusive growth.

The programme, which is being coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), was approved in August 2014 and will be implemented in phases till 2018.

To be sure, the foundations of a digital nation were laid down in bits and pieces by previous governments, especially over the last decade with the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) approved in 2006 under the Congress regime.

But the loose ends of the vision are finally being tied up by the current Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government that is using technologies like mobility, analytics, cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) to implement the Digital India vision that dovetails with its other initiatives like Smart Cities (mintne.ws/1SsxYrd ) and Make in India (mintne.ws/1fIJ3GO ).

“There are three areas of Digital India—infrastructure, software and services and digital empowerment of people. Not only have we announced the Digital India vision but we also announced the concrete programmes which are to be implemented under Digital India with timelines,” R.S. Sharma, secretary, DeitY, said in an interview.

To begin with, the government introduced a number of applications and products to mark the first day of the Digital India week that began on 1 July in New Delhi. Indian businessmen followed enthusiastically by announcing investments of Rs.4.5 trillion, and hires of 1.8 million people over the next 5-10 years—though most are investments in their own businesses—as part of Digital India that is estimated to cost the government around Rs.113,000 crore.

DeitY already has a portal, MyGov (mygov.in), to facilitate collaborative and participative governance. Besides, its e-Kranti framework addresses the electronic delivery of services through 44 mission mode projects at several government departments. e-Kranti covers essential requirements of core information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure that include the GI Cloud, data centre, network connectivity, common platforms like Aadhaar, mobile seva and a payment gateway.

Government departments have to use the GI Cloud, also known as Meghraj, to host their cloud data, and need to seek permission from DeitY if they want to do otherwise.

The focus is on designing e-governance applications so that related information, services and grievance-handling mechanisms are accessible online in real time, and across all types of access devices such as desktops and mobile devices like laptops, tablets and cellphones.

“Mobile will become a very important component in this. Everything can be done on mobile. Mobile will also become the digital identity as we link mobile to Aadhaar. And with mobile, you will be able to do transactions. This is one area where we have done substantial work,” Sharma said.

Over 1,700 government departments and agencies across the country already use the mobile platform, Mobile Seva. DeitY has also collaborated with the NSDL Database Management Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Securities Depository Ltd, to provide PayGov, a centralized platform for facilitating all government departments and services to collect online payments from citizens for public services.

These include online banking and payments using debit cards, credit cards, cash cards, prepaid cards and mobile wallets.

More importantly, Digital India policy initiatives include the use of open source software and open APIs (application programming interfaces) to ensure interoperability of software across departments, collaborative application development and cloud-ready applications, all the while not getting locked in with specific vendors for software, according to Sharma.

According to Venkatesh Hariharan, director of Alchemy Business Solutions Llp, a company that focuses on open source software and Indian language computing, “politicians and bureaucrats have a clear vision of the potential of IT and this is reflected in their policies around open source and Indian language computing—two high-impact areas that were neglected earlier”.

He cited the example of MyLpg.in, a website that has been made available in 12 Indian languages apart from English. Besides, the “government is making e-Bhasha into a national mission for IT in Indian languages. Therefore, there is hope that justice will finally be done to the multilingual nature of our country through Digital India, and that government websites and apps will be available to Indians in their languages”.

Hariharan also believes that there is “strong conviction” on open source because the government’s policy “has been supported by many central government departments”.

Sharma, on his part, believes that the government programme has made much progress.

“Now we have Bharat Net (earlier known as the National Optical Fibre Network, it is governed by the department of telecom, or DoT). Besides, the digital infrastructure has components like common service centres for every panchayat. Now, all the post offices and the CSCs are being upgraded and expanded.

“In this budget, we had announced JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, mobile). We are very much ahead on that. We have nearly 1 billion mobiles in the country. We have 15.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts and we have 860 million Aadhaar cards. So, we are more or less close to achieving the three goals—that of providing a unique identity, financial inclusion and universal connectivity,” Sharma insisted.

Nevertheless, execution will remain a challenge.

“It is a programme that is to be coordinated by our department, but the implementation has to be done by all government departments, state governments and the UTs (Union territories). We have made efforts in last one year to get to all of them on board. The idea is that once all departments start using IT in a big way, the systems they create should be interoperable, standard-based, and be able to exchange data across different applications,” said another official who did not want to be named as he was not the official spokesperson.

He cited the example of the numerous versions of public distribution system (PDS) applications in states.

“Very often, there are issues in information exchange and in ensuring that the efforts are not duplicated,” the official cited above said.

To address the issue, DeitY has developed an application for PDS that states can configure and use in their own domains. “This will ensure that all the data in existing PDS applications be subsumed or migrated to the new application and all different flavours will be included in one application. That’s one approach to fast-track implementation of applications and to ensure states come onboard without losing their individuality and ownership,” the official said.

He added it will also ensure that states “don’t spend time in buying hardware and instead focus on developing applications which can be quickly implemented. And hardware is in the cloud. So states don’t have to buy their own data centres or servers etc. for hosting the application”.

The official did admit, though, that convincing the states to do so, does pose “a big challenge”.

“Some states have been proactive to come on board faster; so, they will have an advantage. Some states may take time since their back-end systems may not be ready. They may not have computer databases of their own. They may not have funds or resources,” the official said.

Analysts, though, agree that the Digital India vision will be “a game changer for India”.

Prakash C. Prabhakar, director at Deloitte in India, believes that “the demand side of digital in a country like India is a no-brainer but it is the supply side management and operating model of the proposed transformation that requires thoughtful planning and phased implementation to ensure that the impact is as immense as envisaged”.

“The entirety of the vision also dovetails aspects of other policies of the current government such as Smart Cities and Make in India. Clearly, the vision is not a short-term one. It will require considerable investments in terms of manpower, technological upgradation, skilling, digital literacy and, most importantly, a plethora of standards to be laid out and adhered to. Some of the components of Digital India, such as Digital Locker, are a first-of-its-kind in the world and would have a deep impact on the society and the processes,” concluded Jaijit Bhattacharya, partner, cities and digital innovation at consulting firm KPMG.

WHY OPEN SOURCE MAKES SENSE FOR GOVTS

lThe European Commission joined hands with Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam to enhance software solutions by sharing and reusing them. Laws on the adoption of OSS (open-source software) in e-governance were introduced by European countries like Italy and Iceland.

lThe US department of defence has a large number of applications based on OSS and has been implementing a roadmap to adopt OSS and Open Standards.

lFrance has the largest open-source market in Europe and demand for it from public agencies is high.

lChina introduced an office document format known as Uniform Office Format or Unified Office Format (UOF) in 2005 and later, RedOffice was developed based on this. It announced its OSS policy in its 11th Five Year Plan (2006–2010).

lIn India, too, many state governments have started to adopt Linux and OSS as their de facto platforms for e-governance applications deployment. Kerala uses OSS for e-governance and IT education in schools. Tamil Nadu is pursuing the implementation of OSS. Uttaranchal signed two agreements with IBM to begin a statewide e-governance and university programme initiative based on open-source technologies and open standards.

lThe West Bengal government’s IT department has chosen open-source operating systems for its ambitious e-governance programme. Among Union territories, Puducherry was among the first to adopt OSS. The Haryana government had signed a pact with Sun Microsystems to use Sun’s Open Standards-based productivity package–StarOffice 7 Office Suite across all state government departments.