DigiLocker is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and IT department under Digital India Corporation. To digitally empower the citizen of India, the government officially recognizes paperless documents by eliminating the need to produce original documents. To take this initiative one step ahead, union minister V Muraleedharan inaugurated the new program which would enable citizens to submit all documents required for the passport service in paperless mode.
In 2017, the monthly submission of passport application had crossed the one million mark and authorities issued more than seven crore passports using the ‘Passport Seva’ project. Simplification of passport rules and taking the passport-related services closer to the doorstep of the citizens can become easier for the officials and this step will improve the service delivery experience for the millions of Indians who apply for availing different passport services every year.
The government is also working on the idea of a passport to be included as one of the documents in the DigiLocker. This can enable the citizens to retrieve their own passports whenever required and the DigiLocker can also show the citizen-centric approach of the authorities to enhance the passport service experience.
The issued documents in the DigitLocker are deemed to be at par with original physical documents and government has a plan to roll out e-passports which can increase security, making it more difficult to tamper with the data stored in the passport, thereby curbing down the chances of frauds. Thus, biometric passports will improve the immigration process at airports.
Digilocker is not only making the passport paperless but it also enables the use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Chatbot, analytics, and even rapid process automation which can lead to seamless service delivery.
Digital India is transformational, which brought in public accountability through the delivery of various government services digitally, and leveraging the same benefit for passport service, which will ensure ease of access for all citizens in the new digital India.
