Relevance: GS-2: Important Aspects of Governance, Transparency and Accountability, E-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential;

Key Phrases: e-Governance; e-governance initiatives ; Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) link.

What is the context behind this article?

• The Digi-locker mission was launched to provide a platform for document management.
• Upon completion of 6 years of it’s launch, the article lauds the achievements of the mission

Key Highlights

• Status
  • Until now, 100 million+ citizens of India have now signed up and loaded important documents and certificates on the Digilocker platform.

Benefits

• Reducing the use of physical documents
  • Seeking, saving and managing important documents of identity, tax and assets have been a bane for India for decades.
  • e-governance initiatives across national and regional departments have begun to show credible results, by accepting the documents uploaded on digi-locker platform
• Sharing verified electronic documents across government agencies
  • Ensures faster public service delivery
  • Checks the leakage of subsidies and other welfare initiatives
• Plethora of documents issued by various documents can be stored
  • Digilocker allows over 550 types of documents issued by over 1700 institutions connected to the Digilocker platform.
• Benefits government as well as corporate world
  • Digital document storage is being provided which also can have a mark of authenticity.
  • Employees both current and potential can offer certified documents to their organisations. For most companies, fake certificates and documents of employees are a nightmare.
  • Getting Digilocker certified documents reduces the chances of fraud and fake papers.
• Benefits to students
  • Many universities and schools have linked their systems to Digilocker.
  • The documents can be pulled into the Digilocker platform directly from the archives of universities.
  • Once certified, the document can be verified on the portal. This process of verification takes much longer when only physical prints of degree or professional certificates are presented.

Global Document Management System (GDMS)

• As per Mordor Intelligence, the global document management system market was valued at $5.51 billion in 2020,
  • It is expected to reach $11.47 billion by 2026, and grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 13.05 per cent.
• What is the purpose of GDMS?
  • To provide the authenticity of the documents submitted.
  • From KYC documents to medical records, the digital document revolution is helping nearly all sectors and industries.
  • As unorganised content makes it difficult for larger organisations to extract business-related information and use available data,
    • DMS proves very effective in overcoming these challenges,” according to Mordor Intelligence.
  • The document management systems market is ever-changing, driven by the need for increased efficiency in the workplace.
  • Gradually the aim is to reach paperless documentation and approvals
  • Several types of organisations are now accepting Digilocker documents for various purposes.
    • These include banking, finance and asset management entities such as NSDL, Zerodha, Edelweiss Broking, Bajaj Finserv and Life Insurance Corporation.
    • Other entities include Godrej Properties, Mahindra & Mahindra, the German Consulate in Chennai and the Embassy of Hungary in Delhi.
• The Digilocker app along with other e-governance platforms like Umang allow citizens to directly manage their documents and access critical information without the cost of going through intermediaries.
• Significant push and accessibility among people due to the Corona Period
  • The lockdown and the pandemic forced government departments to accelerate their digital services at state and city levels, too. Aware citizens and consumers are now demanding higher levels of access, facilities and security for their documents.

Conclusion

• The 100-million mark for Digilocker users is a laudable milestone. India still has a huge task ahead to bring the benefits of digital documents to more than a billion people.

Source:  Business-Standard

Mains Question:

Q. What is a Digilocker Mission? Analyse it’s journey.