Digital Locker Authority soon to push paperless governance
The Centre is planning to appoint an authority to administer and
manage its Digital Locker initiative, one of the key projects under Digital
India programme, as it looks to push paperless governance.
Proposal:
Digital Locker Advisory Group has advised the government to
appoint Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) to take up the role of the
Authority for regulation purposes, while Standardisation Testing and Quality
Certification (STQC) may be made responsible for drafting and maintenance of
specifications and audits.
Functions to be performed by the authority:
- The Digital Locker Authority will be responsible for granting licenses and to authorise a private entity to offer these services.
- It will prepare standards and guidelines, while also ensuring compliance by service providers. These guidelines include those for data retention and migration, audit and security and privacy.
- The authority will also need to notify the fee or service charges a subscriber will have to pay for availing Digital Locker services from authorized service providers. Currently, the services are offered for free.
About DigiLocker:
It is dedicated personal storage space, linked to each resident’s
Aadhaar number. DigiLocker can be used to securely store e-documents as well as
store Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) link of e-documents issued by various
issuer departments. The e-Sign facility provided as part of DigiLocker system can
be used to digitally sign e-documents. The initiative was launched by the
Department of Electronics and Information Technology, under the Ministry of
Communications and IT.
- Here, the users can store their documents such as insurance, medical reports, PAN card, passport, marriage certificate, school certificate and other documents in the digital format.
- With this, the government is trying to create an electronic version of documents, which can be easily verified and stored in printable format.
- At present, the digital locker gives 10MB of free space for individuals to store documents and links of government department or agency-issued e-documents. The government is also planning to subsequently increase the storage space to 1 GB.
- It will minimize the use of physical documents and will provide authenticity of the e-documents.
- It will provide secure access to Govt. issued documents.
- It will also reduce administrative overhead of Govt. departments and agencies and make it easy for the residents to receive services.
