ScoutMyTrip is now the First Private Sector Travel Tech Company to integrate with GOI’s DigiLocker in a way suited for travelers and for the benefit of its users.

I have two identities – one of a techie working with ScoutMyTrip as it’s CTO, and the other of a traveler who likes to drive/ride his vehicles to explore lesser-known places, especially in Himalayas (and now the Western Ghats). Every time I hit the road for such a road trip, it is always a pain to gather all the relevant documents  which could be documents pertaining to the vehicle I’m taking out (DL, RC, PUC and Insurance) as well as documents which I may require during such travels (Identity proof like Aadhaar Card, Road Side Assistance, Travel Insurance, Medical Insurance, Accidental Insurance, etc). As a traveler, I was always looking for a convenient way of categorizing, storing and carrying such documents.

With the Digital India initiative of Government Of India, driven by NeGD under MeitY, DigiLocker is one such utility which eases out that pain like a Swiss army knife whereby one would be able to store all their travel related documents which I just mentioned at a single, trustworthy repository which they can reference whenever and wherever required, on their fingertips!

So the techie and traveler in me came together to prompt ScoutMyTrip to partner with DigiLocker as a Requester – to provide this innovation to all the registered users of the platform, while also maintaining the security and confidentiality of the user’s data. ScoutMyTrip facilitates upload of documents through its interface to DigiLocker implemented via SaveToLocker API. Similarly, users can download their respective documents from Travel DigiLocker through ScoutMyTrip interface implemented via FetchFromLocker API.

At no point of time, ScoutMyTrip saves a user’s uploaded/downloaded document on its servers.  These documents are all stored in a secure and encrypted format in the servers of DigiLocker. In addition, users can get certified and signed copies of vital documents like Aadhaar, Vehicle RC, Driving License, etc directly from respective Issuers (UIDAI and MoRTH) which are more and more being accepted in lieu of original paper copies. Government of Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have already brought out notifications for acceptance of DL/RC issued through DigiLocker by traffic authorities (https://digilocker.gov.in/resource/departmental_circulars.php). With time, more and more states hopefully will come out with such notifications and also documents such as fitness certificate, insurance certificate, etc. will be issued directly through DigiLocker by respective organizations.

The DigiLocker platform has the following benefits*:

1. Citizens can access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online. This is convenient and time-saving.
2. Digital Locker makes it easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly by the registered issuers.
3. Self-uploaded documents can be digitally signed using the eSign facility (which is similar to the process of self-attestation).

*Source: https://digilocker.gov.in/about.php

Trivia: Do you know that DigiLocker works in off-line mode too? Cached documents (the document has been accessed once before) can also be accessed when the Internet connection is not available (off-line mode). So for example, if at Khardung La one needs to access RC  or any Identification document to show it, even if no mobile signal is available, still based on last accessed document, the document can be opened!

This integration of DigiLocker with ScoutMyTrip would not have been possible without helpful and time-bound support from NeGD, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and would like to thank them immensely for all that they did for us!

With this step, we feel we have started the spark need to begin a revolution in the travel industry. Imagine traveling without any physical documents. It’s all possible now. This is the #DigitalIndia dream for a traveler with the integration of ScoutMyTrip and DigiLocker!

Click to join the digital revolution in travel!