DigiBoxx - An Indian Cloud Storage Service by NITI Aayog

DigiBoxx is India’s first home-grown Digital Asset Management Platform where individuals can store and collaborate with digital assets, like raw files, photographs, and sensitive collateral. Launched in December 2020, this Indian cloud-storage service DigiBoxx offers both free and paid cloud storage plans for individuals and businesses. The service competes with Google One, Microsoft’s OneDrive and Dropbox by offering relatively affordable plans.

Why is Digiboxx in the news?

DigiBoxx has been in the news since its launch in December 2021. From being launched and promoted by The NITI Aayog as a boost to Atmanirbhar Bharat to clocking one million users within six months of launch, with nearly a fifth of them active daily, it has hogged the limelight. Most recently, it has successfully raised USD 1.5 million in a pre-series-A funding round led by Chandigarh-headquartered Capgro Fund.

It bears immense significance in the perspective of UPSC civil service examination, in terms of the startup ecosystem, investment, economy, digital data, cybersecurity and data localization.

In this article, we shall be discussing data and various aspects of the topic and its relevance. Further, this article covers other important dimensions, keeping in mind the demands of the preliminary as well as the Main Examination of the UPSC IAS Exam.

What does it offer?

  • DigiBoxx is a Make in India product venture, offering digital asset management and storage platforms such as cloud and file-sharing services.
  • It is said to be hosted on an Indian server, which means the data will be saved and encrypted in India itself.
  • Enables both individuals and enterprises to store, manage, collaborate, organise and share all their data online.
  • It has different prices, benefits for a free user, an individual/freelancer, small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises.
  • For individuals, the free Digiboxx account offers 20 GB of storage, a 2 GB maximum file size, Gmail integration, and unlimited external collaborations.
  • It offers storage services on both monthly and yearly plans.
  • It offers 100 GB of space per month to users at just Rs 30. 
  • For small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it offers 50 TB storage at Rs.999 per month.
  • It includes 10 GB max file size, unlimited external collaborations, advanced real-time collaboration, web preview, automated backups, user management and Gmail integration. 
  • This facility and service can be extended up to 500 users, on a single subscription.
  • The cloud storage platform is available on Android and iOS and can be accessed on computers through the web.
  • It offers customised solutions for enterprises.
  • TB refers to Terabyte and GB, Gigabyte.

What is its significance?

  • It indigenized the cloud services after major foreign players like Google announced that the group won’t be offering unlimited free photo uploads starting June 1, 2021.
  • It is an innovative model through which multiple Indian Data Centres are collaborating, working to achieve these price points.
  • Furthermore, it’s an intelligent mesh created using domestic cloud solutions.
  • The platform is the first of its kind ‘Make in India, Store in India’ digital asset management SaaS product.
  • It confers the priorities and vision line with the country’s national security and data localisation.
  • All plans support unlimited external collaborators, suggesting that users who don’t have DigiBoxx accounts can also access the files sent to them. 
IAS exam aspirants can boost their preparation with the help of the following links:

  1. Previous Years’ UPSC Question Papers
  2. Topic-wise GS 3 Questions of UPSC Mains
  3. Science and Technology Decoded for UPSC
  4. 100+ Difference Between Articles for UPSC
  5. General Studies GS 3 Structure and Strategy
  6. Indian Economy in 50 Days for Prelims
  7. Syllabus and Strategy for Economics
  8. Science and Technology Questions UPSC Prelims

What are the advanced features of Digiboxx?

  • The services offered support smart tags and users will be able to find any file within seconds, as per the company. 
  • One can share any document, photo or video from the platform without downloading them again on their device. 
  • Due to its cross-platform support, users can access any file immediately and edit them.
  • Users get the option to control access with permissions. 
  • Service allows users to pull back any file that they might have sent to the wrong person. 
  • The InstaShare feature allows the users to share large files.
  •  If a user deletes the data, the service won’t remove it for 60 days, 
  • This offers ample time to have time to restore the data by the users if needed.

What are its advantages?

  • No compromise in the security of the users’ digital assets.
  • It is easy to use the application, promoting seamless integration.
  • Features such as adding and deleting data are provided based on the user requirement.
  • It is a fast file sharing tool, enabling the user to share critical digital assets in minutes.

What are the security aspects and features?

  • The service has connection encryption and all the files stored on the platform are encrypted at a database level. 
  • All the data is being stored in the country. 
  • The service claims to offer support for SSL file encryption.

Conclusion

Data Localization, Privacy in India is a major issue and concern in this age of the digitised world. In a globalized economy, data is the new oil, destined to bring revolutions. Digiboxx provides an innovative solution, fresh perspective to the concepts of cloud service by indigenisation of the sector. Although there are smaller players with limited outreach, Digiboxx is a beginning. It is going to spur the growth of the cloud service ecosystem with an increasing trend of more players in the fray. It is a healthy sign for the growth of the Indian domestic sector, a data-driven economy.

It addresses the question of personal data protection and scope of misuse, adverse impact on national security, and issues of privacy. Further, the security architecture and end-user clauses must be relevant to this national interest, promoting safety and constitutional principles, rights of the users.

The concept of data localization, issues of law enforcement agencies in tracing the roots of crucial data in investigations, will also be addressed to a greater extent. Further, the low-cost solutions will cater to the needs of the tertiary and secondary sectors, industries, further creating a space for their growth. This is going to rewrite the growth story for domestic industries, and thus has been rightly hailed as a new success story of the Atmanirbhar Bharat by the NITI Aayog.

This article is relevant for the sections of Science and Technology, Current Affairs part of the UPSC Syllabus prescribed for Preliminary and Main Stages of Civil Services Exam.

Related Links:

Science and Technology Notes for UPSC Indian Economy Notes for UPSC
World Intellectual Property Organisation Personal  Data Protection Bill
MSME Samadhaan National Payment Corporation of India

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