UKPSC Prelims 2025 General Studies Paper-I · Question 39 of 149

Correct — A, Provide cloud storage for personal documents.

DigiLocker is a Digital India initiative run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It gives a citizen an account on a government-operated cloud, so cloud storage for personal documents describes exactly what the service hands the user.

That account holds two kinds of files. Issued documents are pushed into it by the issuing authority itself — a board, a transport office, a tax department — already digitally signed. Uploaded documents are the files the account holder adds.

The point of the storage is paperless service delivery: a certificate that can be fetched and checked digitally removes the need to carry, photocopy or attest the paper version.

Carry away that DigiLocker's whole business is documents — issuing them, holding them, letting a verifier check them.

• (b)
  Offer online banking services — Money is not what this account moves. Internet banking and UPI-based payment apps are what this description fits: they let a user transfer funds, pay bills and operate an account with a bank.

  Financial institutions do appear inside DigiLocker, but in the role of issuer — the paper they would otherwise post to you arrives as a signed digital document instead. That is a document relationship, not a transaction channel.

• (c)
  Facilitate online shopping — Buying and selling sit on a different platform altogether. Within the government's own stack, the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is the one built for online purchasing, where ministries and public sector buyers procure goods and services.

  What DigiLocker moves between a citizen and a verifier is a certificate, and what the exchange ends in is a verified document rather than a purchase.

• (d)
  Enable video-conferencing with government officers — This describes a video-conferencing service — a live audio-video link between two people, the kind used for e-Sanjeevani teleconsultations with government doctors or for remote court hearings.

  DigiLocker works the other way round. The citizen shares a stored document, or grants a verifier access to it, and the verifier can act on it later; the exchange is of a file, not of a meeting.

A digital locker is an account on a government-operated cloud in which a citizen's certificates exist as data rather than as paper.

Two features lift it above a folder of scans. The issuing authority can place a document into the account already digitally signed, and a third party who needs to check that document can verify it against the issuer's own record instead of trusting a photocopy.

• DigiLocker is run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as part of the Digital India programme.
• Digital India describes it as a platform for the issuance and verification of documents and certificates digitally, replacing the use of physical documents.
• Issued documents are pushed in by the issuing authority and carry its digital signature; uploaded documents are files the account holder adds.
• Rule 9A of the IT (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016 puts issued documents at par with original physical documents.
• An account is opened with a mobile number, and linking Aadhaar lets the holder pull issued documents from partner issuers.
• Issuer partners include education boards, the road transport authorities for driving licence and vehicle registration certificate, and the Income Tax Department for PAN.
• Because the documents sit on a server and the holder signs in to reach them, the account can be accessed from any internet-connected device.

• The word 'locker' pulls towards a bank vault; what this locker holds is documents.
• Banks and insurers do meet DigiLocker — as issuers of documents — which can make the banking option look defensible when it is not.
• Each wrong option names a real service the government does provide through some other platform, so recognising the service is not enough — the stem asks which one DigiLocker is.
• The plainest of the four descriptions is the accurate one here, so hunting for something more elaborate leads away from the answer.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  DigiLocker functions under which one of the following ministries?

  • (a)Ministry of Home Affairs
  • (b)Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
  • (c)Ministry of Communications
  • (d)Ministry of Finance
  Answerb — DigiLocker is run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the ministry that owns the Digital India programme.

  Home Affairs handles internal security and the census organisation; Communications covers posts and telecommunications; Finance covers taxation and financial services. The platform belongs to none of these three.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In DigiLocker, an 'issued document' is best described as a document which is

  • (a)scanned and uploaded into the account by the account holder
  • (b)placed in the account by the issuing authority in digital form, carrying its digital signature
  • (c)printed from the account and attested by a gazetted officer
  • (d)forwarded to the account holder by another DigiLocker user
  Answerb — an issued document comes from the issuing authority's own record in digital form and carries that authority's digital signature, which is what lets a verifier accept it without a physical copy.

  Option (a) describes an uploaded document, the other category in the account. Option (c) returns to paper and attestation, the very step the platform removes. Option (d) describes sharing, not issuance.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following statements about DigiLocker: 1. It is an initiative under the Digital India programme. 2. A DigiLocker account can be accessed only from the device on which it was created. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  • (a)1 only
  • (b)2 only
  • (c)Both 1 and 2
  • (d)Neither 1 nor 2
  Answera — statement 1 is correct: DigiLocker is an initiative under the Digital India programme, run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

  Statement 2 is wrong. The documents sit on a server and the holder reaches them by signing in, so the account can be accessed from any internet-connected device. With statement 2 false, options (b), (c) and (d) all fail.