I step out of the house for my morning walk without any cash. Along the way I wander into a fruit store selling fresh musk melons. I buy one and use my cloth bag (always carry one) and pay using BHIM or GPay at the checkout counter. This is what living in Digital Bharat looks like.
When I take a flight, I take pictures of my boarding pass and show it at the gate, check-in counter, security gate and nothing gets printed.
DigiYatra
The old DigiYatra has been phased out and we downloaded the new app. All we had to do was connect to our respective Digilockers for the credentials to be uploaded. A selfie taken in a few seconds for face recognition and am all set. The entire process takes less than 2 minutes. A photo of my boarding pass ensures am waved through without a queue in those airports where DigiYatra is enabled.
Income Tax
Every step of the way, there is no paper involved … everything gets uploaded despite the glitches with the portal sometimes and I get instant updates. Refunds happen without any follow-up. The process to pay advanced tax or TDS is so simple that it gets done in less than two minutes. Ofcourse we can debate about the tax slabs and how it’s out of whack and who else needs to get into the tax ambit, but the process of tax collection is so simple !
In earlier governments, the same problems about tax slabs existed but alongwith that we also had to go through hell when we wanted to pay the tax. The whole system was rigged with IT officials being the Kings of the tax jungle. All that is gone, digitally removed :).
Passport
Krishnan and I had to renew our passports during the pandemic in 2022. We uploaded all the details on the website, went to the passport office that’s managed by TCS to get photographed and provide the biometrics. Within four days we had our renewed passports delivered at home. Not Tatkal, no money paid to any broker, no policeman asked us for money …. nothing. The process worked beautifully.
We got status update over SMS regularly. See below –
I just wish they had a better camera at the TCS Passport Seva Kendra – I get scared looking at my own photo in the passport, leave alone anyone else getting scared 😁.
Driving License
My driving license had to be renewed this year. Again, I logged onto the parivahan.gov.in and just followed the steps laid out there. We have to get a doctor’s certificate in case of the renewal. That’s the only thing you need to print out and scan it after getting a GP to sign off on it. All documents have to be uploaded … nothing can be sent to any office as physical documents.
You can keep checking on the progress of your driving license renewal on the Parivahan website.
We get the digital copy of the driving license first and the physical card gets delivered to your home address by speed post.
No visiting any office and all brokers are out of business ! No wonder the “middleman” is unhappy with Modiji. 😁
I have written many blogposts about the digital revolution that ModiJi’s government has brought about – India – The World Leader in Digital Payments and India and USA – The Digital Divide. The personal examples above are to emphasize the point that living in digital Bharat is a whole new experience.
All the gobbledegook that the clown prince is spouting has no relevance ! George Soroses of the world need to understand that Bharat is no longer the wimp it was and its slowly claiming the pole position in Geopolitics. Cry a bucketful but it ain’t going away. #RahulGandhiLies
Bharatiyas – unite under the tricolour. That’s our only identity. We are proud Bharatiyas, not colonial Indians. Our cultural heritage is a gift to mankind. Our way of life is the only sustainability program the Earth requires and our ancient civilization’s is something to be proud of.
Jai Hind. Jai Hind Ki Sena.
1 thought on “Living in Digital Bharat: Transforming Everyday Processes”