The Karnataka Government will soon roll out a mobile app, e-Sahamathi, which is a tool to empower citizens to own, control and share their data with various private and public companies to get jobs, seek admission in universities or colleges, and any such purpose.
The digital platform developed by the e-Governance Department of the government with support of National Informatics Centre, would enable citizens to share their personal data and documents with companies and universities where they feel it would help them in getting jobs or admission to educational courses.
Under the system, a citizen has to login using his Aadhaar number and share his/her data with companies by making a request to the Consent Manager of e-Sahamathi. The Consent Manager would send the data to the companies/universities or any other entity.
Universities and companies have to register with e-Sahamathi to be able to access the data.
The new system would eliminate physical verification of certificates/documents and avoid delay and corruption, said Rajiv Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary, E-governance.
Data would be given for the purpose for which consent is given by a citizen. It provides only the minimal data with accuracy and ensures lawfulness, fairness and transparency.
E-Sahamathi would be able to share the data with private/public entities only with the consent of the individual. So far, 63 private and government universities in Karnataka have registered on the platform. Among the notable educational institutions, only IIIT-Dharwad and IIM-B have not joined the platform so far, he said.
The platform would provide certificates of class 10 (SSLC) candidates since 2003 and class 12 (PUC) since 2008. It would provide documents of degrees and other courses of the last 10 years.
The facility would be helpful for companies during the recruitment process. Submission of certificates through universities using the digital platform would eliminate submission of fake certificates by candidates.
Universities have the right to collect a fee from an individual or a company for submission of certificates, the senior IAS officer said.
A fee of ₹50,000 has been fixed for registration of companies. Only credible and noteworthy firms would be enrolled. The fee would be used for maintenance of the e-governance system, he said.
A committee headed by the additional chief secretary would monitor applications and enrol firms after payment of the requisite fee, he said.
“This framework will let an entity access an individual's data only with his/her permission, which in turn will help to build better products for the individual/entity and country,” he said.
Mr. Chawla said, “The department is responsible for making the data available to any data seeker/consumer upon valid consent. Consent manager is responsible for collecting, updating and revoking consent based on citizen’s request.”
The platform would also provide shareable data, such as jobs under MGNREGA scheme and weather forecast.
Karnataka would be the first State in India to launch this app, which would become operational after the inauguration by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. An order and guidelines have already been issued in this regard.
Mr. Chawla said the Telangana Government has sought the department’s services to install similar software (e-Sahamathi) in that State.
