Digital India: 5 government-made smartphone apps to help you in your daily life

Nowadays, our smartphones are stuffed with applications for a range of uses, from productivity to shopping to food delivery to ride-hailing. To make civic life easier, even the government has launched a range of apps for Indians to better adopt digital governance. Since 2015, under the 'Digital India' initiative, the government has launched a host of mobile apps for Android and Apple iOS users to avail government services digitally.

Here are the top 5 must-have govt apps:

Digilocker

DigiLocker is a secure cloud-based platform for storage, sharing and verification of documents and certificates. The service provided by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) was launched in 2015 and is available on the Android Play Store and Apple store. DigiLocker provides an account in the cloud to every Indian citizen to access authentic documents/certificates such as vehicle registration, driving license, academic mark list in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates. It also provides 1GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of important documents.

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UMANG

UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is developed by MeitY and National e-Governance Division (NeGD) to drive Mobile Governance in India. The app provides a unified platform for all Indian citizens to access pan India e-Gov services ranging from Central to local government bodies and other citizen-centric services. It's the go-to app for a number of services ranging from accessing one's e-Aadhar card to applying for PAN card to accessing CBSE results, ordering a Bharat Gas refill. According to the developer, over 100 government services are provided.

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mPassport Seva

As the name suggest, this app has been brought by the Ministry of External Affairs to provide passport related services for smartphone users. Available on both the Android Play Store and Apple store, mPassport Seva is a lightweight, easy to use app that provides all the functions as available over the Passport Seva Portal such as New User Registration, Apply for Passport Services, existing User Login, Schedule appointment, Pay online, Know Location of Passport Centers, Application Status, Fee Details, Contact Information and other general information. If you are a frequent foreign vistor, this app shall come handy.

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BHIM

One of India's most popular payment application, BHIM stands for 'Bharat Interface for Money'. With the stated aim of making India a "cash-free" economy, the app is developed the National Payment Corporation of India and facilitates e–payment directly through the bank accounts using the advanced Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Available on both the Android Play Store and Apple store, BHIM has gained significant user surge since the demonetization drive of 2016 when the government pushed for more cashless payments.

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MyGov

MyGov app is developed by the MeitY and is an engagement platform that allows a citizen to participate in governance and policymaking. The app was launched in 2015 to promote the sharing of ideas by common citizens to better governance standards. The app allows you to comment on government policy, submit suggestions and provide feedback to other users over their ideas. The app also allows first-hand access to key policy plans of the government made public. It also occasionally holds creative contests to get good content from users for special occasions.