Railways to accept Digital Aadhaar, Driving Licence as ID Proof from Govt’s DigiLocker

The national transporter has sent a missive to all zonal principal chief commercial managers that these two identity proofs on such service will be accepted as valid proof of identity of a passenger.

NEW DELHI: Worried about losing your identity proofs while travelling by train?  Worry no more! Indian Railways have now announced that it will accept soft copies of Aadhar and driving licence provided they are in your DigiLocker, a digital storage service operated by the government that enables Indian citizens to store certain official documents on cloud.

Railways to accept Digital Aadhaar, Driving Licence as ID Proof from Govt’s DigiLocker

Railway Board has sent a missive to all zonal Principal Chief Commercial Managers that these two identity proofs on such service will be accepted as valid proof of identity of a passenger. “If a passenger shows Aadhaar or driving licence from the ‘issued documents’ section by logging into his DigiLocker account, the same should be considered as valid proof of identity,” it said.

It has, however, clarified that the documents uploaded by the passenger himself that is the documents in the ‘uploaded documents’ section will not be considered as a valid proof of identity. As part of the Narendra Modi government’s Digital India movement, DigiLocker can currently store digital driving licences and Aadhaar. Subscribers can also integrate their PAN with DigiLocker.

About DigiLocker

DigiLocker is a “digital locker” service operated by the Government of India that enables Indian citizens to store certain official documents on the cloud. The service is aimed towards reducing the need to carry physical documents, and is part of the government’s Digital India initiative. Targeted at the idea of paperless governance, DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents. Indian citizens who sign up for a DigiLocker account get a dedicated cloud storage space that is linked to their Aadhaar (UIDAI) number.

About DigiLocker

1 GB of storage space is offered to users to store identification card issued by government agencies, education certificates, PAN cards, driving license, vehicle ownership documents and some other documents.

Users need to possess an Aadhar card to use DigiLocker. For sign-up, the Aadhar card number and the one-time password sent to the Aadhar-associated mobile number, need to be entered. For later log-ins, the user can set their own password or link the account to Facebook or Google logins.

Organizations that are registered with Digital Locker can push electronic copies of documents and certificates (e.g. driving license, Voter ID, School certificates) directly into citizens lockers. 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 platform has the following benefits:

  1. Citizens can access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online. This is convenient and time saving.
  2. It reduces the administrative overhead of Government departments by minimizing the use of paper.
  3. Digital Locker makes it easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly by the registered issuers.
  4. Self-uploaded documents can be digitally signed using the eSign facility (which is similar to the process of self-attestation).

The following are the key stakeholders in the DigiLocker system:

  • Issuer: Entity issuing e-documents to individuals in a standard format and making them electronically available e.g. CBSE, Registrar Office, Income Tax department, etc.
  • Requester: Entity requesting secure access to a particular e-document stored within a repository (e.g. University, Passport Office, Regional Transport Office, etc.)
  • Resident: An individual who uses the Digital Locker service based on Aadhaar number.

The main technology components of the DigiLocker system are:

  • Repository: Collection of e-documents that is exposed via standard APIs for secure, real-time access.
  • Access Gateway: Secure online mechanism for requesters to access e-documents from various repositories in real-time using URI (Uniform Resource Indicator).
  • DigiLocker Portal: Dedicated cloud based personal storage space, linked to each resident’s Aadhaar for storing e-documents, or URIs of e-documents.

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