Department of Telecommunications (DoT) guidelines to telecom companies

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) guidelines to telecom companies

Context : The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked telecom companies and other telecom licence holders to prepare proof of concept and ensure their systems are ready before allowing them to launch self ‘know your customer’ (KYC) process

• The DoT has said that in its communication to the licensees for the self KYC process to be approved, all telecom service providers’ must provide customers an option to log in with a separate one-time-password being generated for each log in.
• Apart from this, the telecom service provider have to ensure that the alternate number provided by the customer is an Indian number.
• The DoT has also said that only documents that have been electronically issued and verified by the respective authority on DigiLocker can be used for the self KYC process. Documents uploaded by the customer on DigiLocker will not be used for the process.

Digi Locker

• DigiLocker is a flagship initiative of Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) under Digital India programme. DigiLocker aims at ‘Digital Empowerment’ of citizen by providing access to authentic digital documents to citizen’s digital document wallet.
• 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 notified on February 8, 2017 vide G.S.R. 711(E).

Benefits to Citizens

• Important Documents Anytime, Anywhere!
• Authentic Documents, Legally at Par with Originals.
• Digital Document Exchange with the consent of the citizen.
• Faster service Delivery- Government Benefits, Employment, Financial Inclusion, Education, Health.

Benefits to Agencies

• Reduced Administrative Overhead: Aimed at the concept of paperless governance. It reduces the administrative overhead by minimizing the use of paper and curtailing the verification process.
• Digital Transformation: Provides trusted issued documents. Issued Documents available via DigiLocker are fetched in real-time directly from the issuing agency.
• Secure Document Gateway: Acts as a secure document exchange platform like payment gateway between trusted issuer and trusted Requester/Verifier with the consent of the citizen.
• Real Time Verification: Provides a verification module enabling government agencies to verify data directly from issuers after obtaining user consent.