Science and Technology
In news: The government has introduced Digi Yatra to make air travel hassle-free.
- The facility will be available for passengers taking domestic flights at Delhi’s Terminal 3, Bengaluru and Varanasi airports.
- DigiYatra will be launched at four more airports — Hyderabad, Pune, Vijaywada and Kolkata — by next March and later in rest of the country.
- Among airlines, passengers travelling Air India, Vistara and IndiGo on their domestic network can avail this facility at the three airports
Digi Yatra:
- It is a paperless entry at airports using facial recognition software.
- It envisages that travellers pass through various checkpoints at the airport through paperless and contactless processing, using facial features to establish their identity, which would be linked to the boarding pass.
- With this technology, the entry of passengers would be automatically processed based on the facial recognition system at all checkpoints – including entry into the airport, security check areas, aircraft boarding, etc.
- Passengers won’t need to carry their ID card and boarding pass.
- The project is being implemented by the DigiYatra Foundation — a joint-venture company whose shareholders are the Airports Authority of India (26% stake) and Bengaluru Airport, Delhi Airport, Hyderabad Airport, Mumbai Airport and Cochin International Airport.
- These five shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares.
How to avail the facility:
- A passenger must register their details on the DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture.
- In the next step, the boarding pass must be scanned, and the credentials are shared with airport authorities.
- At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar-coded boarding pass and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document.
- Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.
- The passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear security and board the aircraft.
Significance:
- Facial recognition technology is beneficial as it makes flying more convenient and reduces congestion at airports.
- The facial recognition system at various airports across the globe, including Dubai, Singapore, Atlanta and Narita (Japan), have helped bring in efficiency.
Source: Indian express
Previous Year Question
Q.1) Consider the following (2022)
- Aarogya Setu
- CoWIN
- Digi Locker
- DIKSHA
Which of the above are built on top of open-source digital platforms?
- 1 and 2 only
- 2, 3 and 4 only
- 1, 3 and 4 only
- 1, 2, 3 and 4