Digital India is the concept which boosted digital growth in the country and helped small villages, and enterprise to open up to the technology. Introduction of Digital India concept helped many young entrepreneurs to build start-ups. We have seen how rapidly this concept reached each and mostly every individual. This concept has greater impact on cashless transactions. Due to UPI transactions now, anyone can send and receive money from anywhere. Due to this today even a small seller, shopkeepers are aware of digital payment system and using it well.
Those who travel by Air ways might have faced the problem of long queues for security check before boarding the flight. Now Government has found solution to solve this problem. Under the Digital India concept the Ministry of Aviation has introduced paperless entry at select airports to make air travel hassle-free. Under this initiative, airports will use a facial recognition software called ‘DigiYatra’ for entry. This means, passengers won’t need to carry their ID card and boarding pass.
DigiYatra envisages that travellers pass through various checkpoints at the airport through paperless and contactless processing, using facial features to establish their identity, which would be linked to the boarding pass. With this technology, the entry of passengers would be automatically processed based on the facial recognition system at all checkpoints including entry into the airports, security check areas, aircraft boarding, etc.
For availing the service, a passenger has to install and register their details on the DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture. In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned, and the credentials are shared with airport authorities. At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar-codded boarding pass, and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document. Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.
When it comes to passenger document privacy, there is no storage of Personally Identifiable Information. Passenger’s ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the passenger’s smartphone itself. The uploaded data will utilise blockchain technology and all the data will be purged from the servers within 24 hours of use.
As of now the DigiYatra facility will be available for passengers taking domestic flights at Delhi’s terminal 3, Bengaluru and Varanasi Airports. The DigiYatra will be launched at four more airports- Hyderabad, Pune, Vijayawada and Kolkata by next year. Later the DigiYatra will be rolled out across all the airports in the country.
Among the airlines, passengers travelling Air India, Vistara and IndiGo on their domestic network can avail this facility at the three airports.
The Project is implemented by DigiYatra Foundation. Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF), is a not- for- profit company incorporated on February 20, 2019. Digi Yatra Foundation is a joint-venture company set up with initial shareholding of Airport Authority of India (AAI), Cochin International Airport (CIAL), Bangalore International Airport (BIAL), Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL), Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).
Facial recognition technology is beneficial as it makes flying more convenient and reduces congestion at airports. The facial recognition system at various airports across the globe have helped bring in efficiency.
