The Centre will soon appoint an authority to administer and manage its Digital Locker initiative, one of the key projects under Digital India programme, as it looks to push paperless governance.

“The Government will appoint a Digital Locker Authority to establish, administer, and manage Digital Locker system to preserve and retain information for efficient delivery of services to the users,” according to an IT ministry official.

The official added that it has been proposed that Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) may take up the role of the Authority for regulation purposes, while Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) may be made responsible for drafting and maintenance of specifications and audits.

This was suggested in the first meeting of the Digital Locker Advisory Group held last month. It was also suggested that both the tasks can be assigned to CCA.

 The Digital Locker Authority will be responsible for granting licenses and to authorise a private entity to offer these services. Besides, it will need to prepare standards and guidelines, while also ensuring compliance by service providers. These guidelines include those for data retention and migration, audit and security and privacy.

Service charges

The authority, the official said, will also need to notify the fee or service charges a subscriber will have to pay for availing Digital Locker services from authorized service providers.

Currently, the services are offered for free.

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