The Department of Pre-University
Education (DPUE) in Karnataka, Bangalore has decided to incorporate
the DigiLocker facility, launched by the Digital India initiative,
for students from this year onwards to be able to access their second Pre-University
report cards.
Ms C. Shikha, the Director of the Department
of Pre-University Education in Bangalore, said that the service aims to reduce
the need to carry physical documents and paper, no cost is incurred by the
department; the software is convenient and time-saving as students can access
their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online.
With the system storing students’
Pre-University II report cards, the Department plans to upload the preceding
years’ Pre-University II report cards also, so that people looking for jobs and
students enrolling in institutions of higher education can be able to safely
access their report cards and other documents without having to worry about
misplacing or damaging them.
The DigiLocker is an online locker
and is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital
India initiative that was launched
in July 2015 to digitally empower the country. According to the official DigiLocker
website, the software is a
platform to electronically distribute and verify documents and certificates,
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 UID (Unique Identification) or Aadhaar
number.
The Unique Identification Authority
of India is a Government agency based in New Delhi that functions as the
issuing authority for Aadhaar Unique Identification
numbers (UIDs) and cards. The agency under the government can develop, recognise
and create the necessary infrastructure for issuing Aadhaar cards.
Organisations that are registered
with the Digital Locker initiative can push electronic copies of documents and
certificates such as driving license, voter identification and school
certificates and so on 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. eSign is an
online electronic signature service which can be integrated with service
delivery applications through an application programming interface to
facilitate an eSign user to digitally sign a document. The DigiLocker system
also reduces the administrative overhead of Government departments by minimising
the use of paper.
According
to the DigiLocker
website, the software provides access to around 2 billion authentic digital
documents including driving licenses, Permeant Account Number (PAN)
verification records and a number of educational certificates among others.
Ms C. Shikha said that students
who have passed the March 2018 examination can avail the DigiLocker facility
and that a dedicated cloud storage space has already been linked to the Aadhaar numbers of students.
The software also provides a way to
validate the authenticity of the report cards for future employers or
educational institutions where students might enrol for admissions.
Students can
log in to the DigiLocker website by using their valid mobile number, after which the mobile number will
be validated through a one-time password (OTP).
