To make government services more accessible and inclusive, MyGov announced that citizens will be able to use the MyGov Helpdesk on WhatsApp, to access the DigiLocker service.

This includes creating and authenticating their DigiLocker account, downloading documents such as PAN card, driving licence, vehicle registration certificate, insurance policy document amongst others, all on WhatsApp.

What is DigiLocker?

• DigiLocker is an initiative of ministry of electronics & IT (MeitY) under Digital India programme.

• DigiLocker ties into Digital India’s vision of providing citizens a secure document access platform on a public cloud.

• It aims at ‘digital empowerment’ of citizens by providing access to authentic digital documents to citizen’s digital document wallet. 

• Targeted at the idea of paperless governance, DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents. 

• The issued documents in DigiLocker system are deemed to be at par with original physical documents as per Rule 9A of the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries providing Digital Locker facilities) Rules, 2016.

• Over 10 crore people have already registered on Digilocker and uploaded over five billion documents till date.

MyGov Helpdesk

• MyGov Helpdesk on WhatsApp is a major step to ensure governance and government services are at the fingertips of citizens.

• Since its launch in March 2020, MyGov Helpdesk (earlier known as MyGov Corona Helpdesk) on WhatsApp has served as a critical instrument in fighting COVID-19 pandemic by offering people authentic sources of information, along with critical uses like vaccine appointment bookings and vaccine certificate downloads. 

• So far, over 80 million people have reached out to the helpdesk, over 33 million vaccine certificates have been downloaded, and millions of vaccination appointments have been booked across the country.

• With new additions like Digilocker, the MyGov chatbot on WhatsApp aims to build a comprehensive administrative support system for citizens to access resources and essential services that are digitally inclusive.

• WhatsApp users across the country can use the chatbot by sending ‘Namaste’ or ‘Hi’ or ‘Digilocker’ to the WhatsApp number +91 9013151515.

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