The ICAI has announced that it will provide a Digilocker facility to ICAI Members and Students for the storage of e-docs, i.e. a digital locker for the safe-keeping of important documents.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is currently working on a number of projects with the goal of delivering the highest quality of service to its members and students, and it is making ongoing efforts to implement an increasing number of technological solutions in order to simplify the process of service delivery. ICAI was successful in launching the Digi-Locker facility for its members and students during the recently ended Virtual International Conference. This is yet another ground-breaking move promoting e-governance that was undertaken by ICAI.
The purpose of the ICAI Digi-Locker facility is to provide its members and students with access to authentic digital documents that may be stored in their digital document wallets. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Ministry of IT) is in charge of providing the ICAI Digi-locker facility, which is an online cloud service that ensures the safety and security of essential documents such as membership certificates, certificates of practise, certificates of membership, mark sheets, and certificates of passing examinations, as well as members’ identification cards.
Benefits of Digi-Locker to Members and Students
The advantages of using Digi-Locker for members and students include,-
i) ability to access important documents at any time and from any location;
ii) stored documents are legally equivalent to the originals in terms of authenticity;
iii) documents are shared/exchanged with prior consent or permission of the concerned members/ students;
iv) improved timelines of service delivery for Government Benefits, Employment, Financial Inclusion, Educational Opportunities, and Health Services.
Benefits of Digi-Locker to Clients and Other Agencies
The Digi-Locker facility by ICAI to its Members and Students can brings certain benefits for Clients and Other Stakeholders including Government Agencies and Regulators, as follows:
i) Reduced expense burden of Administration with paperless governance, by reducing the amount of paper that is used and speeding up the verification process.
ii) Documents that have been issued and are available through Digi-Locker are retrieved in real time directly from the organisation that issued them. Providing trusted issued documents is one of the benefits of digital transformation.
iii) Secure Document Gateway performs the function of a secure document exchange platform, analogous to a payment gateway, between a trusted issuer and an authorised Requester/Verifier, with the permission of the Members or Students.
iv) Real Time Verification feature offers a verification module that, once user agreement has been obtained, makes it possible for government authorities to verify data directly from issuers.
“Accessing documents and certificates using the Digi-Locker facility will eliminate the need to carry physical documents,” said CA Atul Kumar Gupta, President, ICAI, while presenting the facility to the profession. It promotes e-governance by providing ready access to issuers online in times of need, not just storage. This service is now available to our members and students with the click of a mouse and the completion of a simple procedure.”
CA Nihar N Jambusaria, Vice-President, ICAI, added, “It shortens the operating cycle time for various financial services while also lowering administrative costs.”
The ICAI Digi-Locker fits into the areas of Digital India’s vision of providing its members and students with a shareable private space on a public cloud and making all documents / certificates available on this cloud.
“Any change in the user’s data will be reflected in real time, and there will be no need to issue a duplicate certificate. It’s very authentic, reliable, and secure.” said CA Manu Agrawal, Project Head, ICAI Digi-Locker.
ICAI Announcement dt. 23/12/2020: Digi-locker for ICAI Members/Students
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