‘Digital India’ initiative to take books, certificates & IDs online

NEW DELHI: Problems like not being able to locate an old Class X certificate needed to renew a passport or for some other official work may get sorted out easily. Even scholarship opportunities in India will be on one platform which will ensure easy application process and disbursement, but most importantly no missing out on opportunities.

Come July 1, 2015, Government of India is planning to launch under 'Digital India' a number of ambitious projects like eBasta on which all NCERT text books as well as some State Boards' textbooks will be available online for downloading from an app free of cost. Another initiative for Aadhaar card holders will be digital locker—DigiLocker—facility which will enable Indians to secure their certificates and access them online at the click of a button. Filling up online forms using the e-sign facility and the DigiLocker will ensure elimination of usage of fake documents.

According to highly placed sources in the department of Information Technology, under the ministry of communication and information technology, these are the pet projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office has been personally monitoring the preparation and implementation of the projects.



"eBasta is an e-resource portal. The app will enable one to download e-text books, lectures and practical videos, and audio files, store them and access them on phones, tablets or computers even when internet connectivity is not available. The idea is to bring publishers, free as well as commercial, and schools to come together. Schools on this platform can create structured resources. For students it will reduce the burden of physical books and easy access to structured resources created by schools," said a technical resource person working on eBasta in the department of IT.

According to sources in the ministry of IT, the launch of these projects is scheduled for July 1, which includes an ambitious DigiLocker portal. Anyone with an Aadhaar number and a mobile number can sign-up for this facility where one can secure documents like SSC Certificate, HSC Certificate, PAN card, Voter ID card, etc. "These documents can be easily shared via emails. The emails will have Uniform Resource Indicator (URI) to be generated by issuer department, which has been made mandatory for e-document of the digital locker system. Issuer is one who issues the e-documents to individuals and makes them electronically available like the CBSE, Registrar Office, Income Tax department, etc., while the 'Requester' is the institution seeking secure access to a particular e-document stored in the repository like University, Passport Office, Regional Transport Office, etc. This will ensure elimination of usage of fake certificates," said a senior official in the IT department.