GVK Scion Unveils 'Equal', Digital Identity Sharing Platform to Benefit Healthcare, Other Sectors

Equal offers a secure and consent-driven platform where users can securely store, organise, and share various government IDs and documents, such as PAN cards, driver's licences, health records, financial documents, and more.

Keshav Reddy, founder of Stealth Company and GVK scion along with Rajeev Ranjan, former Swiggy director, have jointly launched Equal, a digital platform to simplify the process of sharing identification documents.

The platform's primary focus is to create a secure and convenient environment for Indians to manage, store, and share their government-issued records, including PAN cards, driver's licences, and health and financial documents.

A digital document-sharing platform, such as Equal, can play a pivotal role in streamlining the healthcare experience by enabling individuals to navigate various hospitals and healthcare institutions seamlessly. The platform can ensure patients' access to their essential information quickly by securely storing and sharing critical documents such as medical records, identification proofs, insurance details, and consent forms. This can expedite the check-in and admission processes and enhance the accuracy of medical histories and treatment plans.

Furthermore, healthcare professionals can make well-informed decisions based on up-to-date patient records, leading to more effective care. The platform's ability to facilitate easy verification of patients' identities and medical histories can contribute to a more efficient and patient-centric healthcare ecosystem, reducing administrative hassles and improving overall patient satisfaction. 

Equal's versatile digital ID platform is designed to cater to various use cases. These encompass tasks such as seamless check-ins at hotels, co-working spaces, and hospitals, as well as robust verification processes for employees, loan applications, housing finance, insurance, and transactions such as real estate and vehicle purchases.

Its vision is to positively impact a broad spectrum of individuals, spanning from white-collar to blue-collar workers, farmers, borrowers, and consumers. Equal strives to empower these diverse cohorts by helping them efficiently manage their identification documents.

Equal's foundation is rooted in collaboration, having been developed in partnership with India Stack and DigiLocker. The platform has already gained traction, amassing approximately 1 million users during its beta program.

While the app is offered free of charge to users, Equal generates revenue by charging businesses that use the platform to engage with consumers and access their ID documents and records.

A significant distinction between DigiLocker and Equal is that while the former focuses on the storage and authentication of digital IDs and records, Equal specialises in sharing these documents through a simple click and the user's consent.

All sensitive information and data are safeguarded within a data vault and fortified by tokenisation for enhanced security. Equal further employs 256-bit secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to secure information transmitted during any activity, making it highly resistant to breaches.

Equal not only streamlines this process but also provides a secure alternative to file-sharing platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox for managing sensitive documents.

Equal's launch comes in the wake of the government's introduction of DigiLocker, aimed at facilitating storage and sharing services for MSMEs, startups, and other business entities to boost innovation in fintech services.

DigiLocker, with over 184 million registered users and 6.22 billion issued documents, plays a pivotal role in Equal's operations by fetching government-approved documents and records.

It's noteworthy that Google partnered with DigiLocker in the previous year, integrating the services into the Files by Google app. This integration allows Indian users to access their DigiLocker documents via their Android devices conveniently.