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Maharashtra government ropes in Microsoft for creating digital IDs for citizens

The state government is working with software giant Microsoft on a project to grant citizens a digital identity which will merge all other identities like driving licences and passports. People will also be given access to an Aadhaar-linked online repository which will store all important certificates and will be used while applying for jobs and services.

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The state government is working with software giant Microsoft on a project to grant citizens a digital identity which will merge all other identities like driving licences and passports. People will also be given access to an Aadhaar-linked online repository which will store all important certificates and will be used while applying for jobs and services.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said they were working on a pilot project with Microsoft to grant a digital identity to people. "The base ID will be Aadhaar and all IDs will be seeded with it. A digital ID will be created and a person will be able to use it everywhere," he added.

Citizens will also be granted a digital locker to store information regarding their degrees and other details.

Fadnavis said in a meeting with Microsoft on Wednesday, the software giant had said they would set up two major data centres in Mumbai and Pune, with the largest capacity in Asia. One such centre has also been planned in Chennai and the three facilities will together cost Rs2,100 crore.

"Once these three data centres are ready, the entire country and South Asia can be handled from there," added Fadnavis.

The state IT department had earlier worked on a "preliminary prototype" of this e-locker from where, if a citizen is applying online for any service, the government department concerned can easily pull out these documents, and add fresh documents applied for by the applicant in this repository. The e-locker will store all important certificates like those related to birth, passport and education.

People will also be able to take printouts of their documents, degrees and certificates from the digital locker, which will have built-in security features. The department had experimentally rolled out the project and operationalised the https://elocker.maharashtra.gov.in website on an "experimental basis."

Over nine crore of Maharashtra's 11.23 crore population has enrolled for Aadhaar.

The state government plans to develop Mumbai as a finance hub with the chief minister holding bilateral meetings with companies on the sidelines of the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Corporate majors like Credit Suisse are looking at Mumbai for their expansion plans.

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