In our previous Thursday Trivia, we spoke about concept of Digi Locker and it’s features. We were equally fascinated by the amazing concept and its purpose, so we decided to download the app and use it ourselves. Though our experience has not been good, because there has not been any sort of experience to talk about. There is no doubt that the service which is being promised is a phenomenal one and will make us transition to a paperless mode of storing documents, but the execution seems to be very slow which kind of explains why the adoption rate has not been able to pick up as much as one would have expected.

The most important feature of Digi Locker is its link to Driving License and Motor Vehicle Registration papers. There is so much news about this one feature that even we were tempted to try it out. After all, who doesn’t like to not worry of driving license and car registration papers while driving. So we filled in all the details required meticulously and were waiting eagerly to see a history getting created right infront of our eyes. We waited and waited and nothing happened. So we tried again, just to make sure this time that all the details were correctly mentioned, yet the end result was the same. Looking at that, we slipped into extreme disappointment though we didn’t blame Shri Narendra Modi for this as it would be stupid to involve him everywhere.

It was after a brief moment of disappointment that realisation dawned. License and vehicle registration documents were not being downloaded because we haven’t given our aadhar number for the same. (I think, we must all do a little exercise of functionality of some basic features in every Government oriented work before blaming the Government, it will surely help.)

Image Curtesy : The Hindu

A search began on how to link our aadhar number to driving license and our documents of vehicle registration. We found that, only Government of Andhra Pradesh has launched an online portal for seamlessly linking aadhar number to both the documents. The website is clean and aadhar number is linked within minutes which makes the use of Digi Locker a more favourable one. While there is nothing in rest of the states. I am sure, Government of Andhra Pradesh will set an example for others to follow and take us one step forward in paperless economy.

Image Courtesy : The Hindu

Digi Locker can be alternatively used for storing important documents online which doesn’t make it very different than an online cloud storage system. One more feature is being highlighted that a student is able to directly download their marksheets and certificates of a recognised government institution, now this we all know that the servers of such institutions are incredibly slow and outdated, receiving documents directly in personal Digi Locker is still a work in progress. It looks like the steps are being taken in that direction.

As we have seen with many Government reforms that adoption rate is generally slow and there are tonnes of modifications required, so will happen with their intended cloud storage system. It will take a while before even State Governments learn the benefits and launch programs that will accelerate the adoption rate which will benefit us to a great extent. Let’s not dismiss this as another wishful idea rather speak about it to more and more people so that it will accelerate the process of Digi Locker initiative.