India Goes Digital: Digital India

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Is Digital India A Game-Changer?
1
India Goes Digital 
Digital India is a great concept. Its purpose is DIGITIZING our interactions with the government. It aims to transform governance by adopting digital technologies. A digital government can deliver citizen services  electronically and online. 
2
Digital India Technologies 
The main digital technologies deployed are cloud computing , mobile technology and the Internet .
3
Digital India Described 
Digital India is a brand name denoting a series of e-governance projects undertaken by various government since the 1990s.  E-governance projects in the past were undertaken in different departments and in isolation. Digital India consolidates all such projects and takes them further in unison.
4
India before Digital India 
Before the advent of digital India,  citizen services were brick and mortar modelled - 
  • paper based- ration card, marks card..
  • office bound- visit office to get service/document/ticket 
  • Local-  documents are valid locally - Gas connection
  • involved physical cash  - 
  • demanded  citizen presence for availing service - senior citizen has to go to bank every year to get living certificate,  
  • required wet signature or thumb impression for agreements or acknowledgements.
5
Aadhaar | Resident Unique Identity  Number 
Digital India has provided each resident a unique 12 digit number called Aadhaar. It is verifiable online and anywhere and any time. Aadhaar is a cradle to grave resident identity number. It is given to the resident after collection of demographic and biometric features and subjecting it to deduplication to establish the resident's uniqueness.  As of now more than 1.3 billion Indian residents have been given Aadhaar numbers.

6
Digilocker 
Digilocker is a cloud based resident document management system.  It is a platform for issuance and verification of documents and certificates. A resident can create a Digilocker account and get it linked with Aadhaar number. Government documents and personal records are directly issued to resident’s Digilocker accounts. A resident can share documents with other agencies and can also e_sign them. This is the foundation for paperless citizen services.
7
e-Sign
A resident can attach a legally valid electronic signature to a document and share a signed document with others. e-Sign feature is integrated into the Digilocker system and residents can esign documents within it . This overcomes the need for wet signature 
8
UPI
Unified payment interface (UPI) is a single interface to all national banks and online wallets. This enables residents to go cashless in transactions. Applications such as BHIM are built using UPI. 

India becomes Digital India 
Using the above fundamental services,  citizen services  are delivered electronically and online. 
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Service Layers of Digital India 
On digital India platform , each of the above systems is built and operated as a seperate layer. These layers are called 1. Presence-less layer,  2. Paperless layer,  3. Cashless layer and 4. Consent layer

11
Digital India citizen services are presenceless 
The presenceless layer is an online resident identity system using Aadhaar number and biometrics. This is called presence-less because a resident can prove his/her identity online.  
Digital India has provided each resident a unique 12 digit number called Aadhaar. It is verifiable online and anywhere and any time. This enables resident to avail service without being present in-person. 

Example: A senior citizen can get Jeevan Pramaan certificate from nearest cyber center and submit to bank online. 
A resident can book an appointment in a hospital online 
12
Digital India Citizen Service is Paperless 
The paperless layer enables a resident record to associated one's online identity (Aadhaar) and stored on cloud storage system. Records can be shared digitally. 
Example: students get their marks sheets directly to their digilocker accounts. They can share it with colleges where they seek admission 
Residents can pull digital copy of Aadhaar card or driving license into their digilocker account and show it to authorities when demanded 
13
Digital India transactions are  Cashless  
The cashless layer provides a single interface to all national banks and online wallets. This enables resident to conduct online transactions. A resident links his/her bank account with Aadhaar number and mobile number.  The mobile number is used as financial address. Money can be transferred and received using this address.
Example: Government subsidies are directly transferred to beneficiary bank account using this cashless layer .
Scholarships are directly transferred to students bank account 

Digital India  | Citizens are empowered with  Consent Layer 
The consent layer aims to maintain security and control of personal data. It is a system which allows users to digitally share their data with service providers in exchange for easier access to credit, insurance and other services. When fully operational, this could bring a big change in the way businesses, individuals, services providers and others use digital data in their day-to-day operations.