Govt Launches 2 Digital Platforms To Simplify India’s Addressing System- Details Here | Economy News

New Delhi: In a major push towards modernising India’s addressing system, the government on Tuesday rolled out two new digital platforms — ‘Know Your DIGIPIN’ and ‘Know Your PIN Code’. These initiatives aim to make location-based services smarter and more accessible for citizens across the country.

These platforms were launched as part of the National Geospatial Policy 2022 and aims to build a modern geospatial system to improve digital governance and make public services easier to access.

What is DIGIPIN?

The DIGIPIN (Digital Postal Index Number) is a geo-coded, grid-based digital address system that is open-source and interoperable. It was developed by the Department of Posts in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad and NRSC, ISRO.

It is a cornerstone of the Department of Posts’ vision to offer Address-as-a-Service (AaaS) — an array of services associated with address data management to support secure and efficient interactions between users, government entities, and private sector organisations.

The ‘Know Your DIGIPIN’ portal enables users to retrieve their DIGIPIN based on precise geolocation, and input latitude and longitude coordinates to fetch corresponding DIGIPINs and vice versa. This initiative simplifies location mapping, enhances logistics and emergency response, and ensures last-mile delivery, especially in rural and underserved areas. 

The DIGIPIN system, officially reviewed and adopted by the Thematic Working Group on Address under the National Geospatial Policy 2022, is now available to all Ministries, State Governments, institutions for integration into their workflows, and users for their own use, said the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications.

Incorporating DIGIPIN as an additional address attribute enables the leveraging of GIS capabilities, laying the foundation for future GIS-based digitalisation of service delivery across various organisations in a cost-effective manner. 

DIGIPIN will enhance location accuracy across multiple sectors by providing precise geographic coordinates, ensuring accurate service delivery and reducing emergency response times. 

The six-digit PIN Code system, introduced in 1972, has served as the backbone of India’s postal delivery.  However, recognising the need to modernise and refine its geographic accuracy, the Department undertook a national geofencing exercise across all postal jurisdictions to geo-reference all the pin code boundaries of the country. 

Based on this, the Department of Post has now launched the ‘Know Your PIN Code’ web application which uses GNSS location features to allow users to identify the correct PIN Code based on the location and submit feedback on PIN Code accuracy for continuous refinement of pin code dataset.

The geo-fenced PIN Code boundaries dataset has also been uploaded on Open Government Data Platform under the title “All India PIN Code Boundary geo-json”. With this dual launch, the Department of Posts advances its role not just as a postal service provider but as a critical enabler of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for India. (With IANS Inputs)

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