The lines written by the left, are now decreasing!

- ¼khík swËe swËe ½ýe heíku rzrsx÷ çkLke hÌkwt Au, yk rËþk{ktLke Lkðe Ãknu÷ Au rzrsÞkºkk

Hum jahan khade hote hain , line wahin se shuru hoti hai... '' What is the reason why people remember this dialogue of Amitabh Bachchan even after many years ? Bachchan Sahib's acting is true , our embarrassment in front of the line also has a big role in it!

The population of our country is so much that everywhere we have to stand in line waiting for our turn. Over the years we have become accustomed to lines , bored and bored. But as you may have also noticed , many of the previous lines are now starting to disappear!

Earlier we used to queue up at STD booths to make cheap phone calls after ten at night , now that is a thing of the past. Earlier we used to stand in queues to buy tickets for movies , buses , trains , tickets, etc. Now that work falls on mobiles. Earlier, you had to stand in a queue in the bank or outside the ATM , now many of the real work of the bank is also done in the mobile. There has definitely been a change from the speed with which the line of vehicles moved when the toll tax was paid in cash at the toll plaza on the highway and now payment is made through FASTag. You may also remember that at the beginning of FASTag , the people who took advantage of it would move quickly in their line and we would sit in the car waiting for our turn!

It is clear that India is becoming digital in many ways. However , if we do not take full advantage of these facilities, where these facilities prove to be incomplete, the line is still drawn by us.

One such thing was - and still is - the lines at the airport. With the recently launched ' Digitra ' , there is a hope that this line will gradually become a thing of the past. This facility is currently available only at three airports and its benefits are only available to a very limited section of the society , but how our digital journey is progressing and understanding Digiatra is worth taking an interest in!

If you are a frequent air traveler in India, you will know that we waste more time at the airport than we do on the plane! When we enter the airport, any identity proof and plane ticket or boarding pass starts the security process , which takes more and more time.

Especially if there is an early morning or late evening flight, there is even more crowd of tourists. For our own safety it is imperative that the security procedures at the airport are very strict. But the fact that it takes more time than necessary is mostly a matter of concern for everyone (recently there has been such a scandal at the Delhi airport that the Union Aviation Minister himself had to go there in person to look into it).

Start of the journey

Now with the Digiatra service launched by the Indian government, this situation is likely to change. This service uses face recognition technology. It links our face , Aadhaar number and flight boarding pass to each other and allows us to skip long queues for physical verification of various documents , at every stage at the airport!

From the beginning of the month of December , the use of Digiatra has started in full scale at the airports of Delhi , Bengaluru , and Varanasi. We have to download this app before our flight date and link it with our Aadhaar number. After this our Digitra ID is generated , We can provide this number while booking the flight ticket. Then , the travel details , including our ID , are sent from the airlines to the airport authority.

Process at the airport

We will need our own ticket and boarding pass while entering the airport. At the airport, the traveler has to validate his digital ID at the kiosk at the entry gate. Thanks to Aadhaar, this verification can be done online , without the help of a security person . Along with this, we have to scan the digital or physical ticket or boarding pass at the kiosk. At that time our face is scanned and matched with the data in the system.

During scanning at the first kiosk , if all these details match with the details already entered in the system , the gate after the kiosk opens automatically and we can enter the airport. Beyond this stage, there is no need for any kind of paper or e-documents everywhere. All we have to do is show the face! Further , after depositing the luggage at the check-in desk of the airline , one has to proceed for the security process. Here also our identity is proved by face recognition system and we get entry earlier than other travelers.

It is obvious that we have to complete all the security procedures here , but it saves a lot of time as there is no need to check paper documents at every stage.

The experience of passengers using Digiatra app is that till now it takes about two hours to go through the security process on a daily basis, but with the help of Digiatra app, this time is reduced to an hour or so.

Of course, since not everyone has full confidence in this system yet, even if people are using the Digiatra app, they reach the airport earlier, believing that it will take them the same time as before.

What about data security ?

To use the Digiatra app, we have to provide our Aadhaar number and face biometric data. But we have given these details in Aadhaar system also. Also , the developers assure that our data is safe in it and most of our data is erased after our journey and no sensitive details are stored.

People are still facing some difficulties in using the Digiatra app , but like other digital initiatives of the Government of India, the Digiatra app seems to be gaining momentum going forward.