Athira Sethu
Kochi, 3 January 2025
New-age stock brokers are reporting a significant inconvenience in onboarding new customers since the government-backed Digilocker service has hit a disruption, reports said. Several industry sources report that nearly all tech-first broking platforms, which highly rely on the service to verify customer documents as part of their onboarding, have been disrupted when it comes to accessing necessary documents since January 1. That has nearly come to a halt in the customer onboarding process of multiple firms. The issue was finally solved late Thursday evening, causing days of delay for these companies.
The problem has raised a question about the increasing dependency of critical business operations on digital public infrastructure, such as Digilocker. The disruption was addressed, but the industry players brought up the point that reliance on a single service provider for crucial services can be detrimental.
Digilocker, run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the directives of the government, is a digital wallet in which citizens can store documents safely. This service enables users to access important documents online without needing physical copies. It is convenient for various verification processes, such as those needed by stock brokers to authenticate their customers.
The problem with Digilocker is resolved now; however, this incident has really reminded the country about the dangers of relying completely on a single digital service provided by a private business. So, it makes a reminder both to the government and private sector for alternative options with backup mechanisms so that not everyone is crippled due to disruptions in the future.
