Our vision is to create a seamless, ‘walk in the park’ experience for every passenger, especially internationally: Siddharth Sharma, Digi Yatra

In an exclusive interaction with Express Computer, Siddharth Sharma, Head of IT Operations, Digi Yatra, discusses the platform’s seamless operations and its innovative approach to privacy and scalability. With over 7.5 million registered passengers, Digi Yatra relies on a cloud-native, serverless architecture to ensure uninterrupted service across Indian airports. Sharma shares insights into the platform’s expansion plans for international travellers, the integration of AI and biometric technologies. He also highlights the lessons learned from Digi Yatra’s rollout, focusing on user experience, operational efficiency, and future growth.

Digi Yatra currently has over 7.5 million registered customers who are flying around the clock. How do you ensure the platform remains up and running all the time without any downtime?

We are on a cloud-native platform, and this is a cloud-native solution. One of the key things we have implemented, which aligns with our privacy-by-design architecture, is the conscious decision not to store any personally identifiable information (PII). In fact, there are no databases involved. This is a solution that operates entirely on a serverless architecture, making it highly scalable.

We act as facilitators between entities like passengers and airports. The system relies on various connections between stakeholders to ensure smooth data flow from one entity to another. This design allows us to scale easily without any major bottlenecks.

Additionally, the airport infrastructure is local and federated. Each airport manages its own infrastructure, including the hardware and biometric solutions used for facial recognition. This localised management approach significantly contributes to scalability, as it’s not a single entity managing everything. Instead, it’s an integrated and scalable solution across airports.

To ensure everything runs smoothly, we recently conducted a performance analysis through an external auditor, and I’m happy to share that we are well-prepared to handle the projected load for the next two to three years.

As Digi Yatra prepares to introduce a pilot for international travellers, what new technological and regulatory hurdles do you anticipate, and how are you planning to address them?

The natural progression for Digi Yatra is to expand internationally after successfully managing domestic travel. Recently, I attended an IATA workshop focused on digital travel credentials and how biometric data can enable seamless travel across borders. One key point of pride is that no global initiative has achieved the scale Digi Yatra has for digital travel solutions.

IATA’s One ID is a global standard aimed at creating interoperable solutions for seamless international travel, and we’ve aligned Digi Yatra with these standards. As we look toward international expansion, several ministries, including the Ministry of External Affairs and the Bureau of Immigration, will need to collaborate to integrate existing systems, such as India’s trusted traveller programme. We’re also anticipating the rollout of chip-based passports and working with IATA, One ID, and ICAO to ensure global interoperability of travel credentials.

The main challenge lies in aligning various departments to trust digital documents at the same level as physical ones. Privacy remains a core concern, and we aim to create verified credentials for international travellers, similar to what we’ve done with Aadhaar domestically. This will involve building a “trust triangle” of self-sovereign identities, where Digi Yatra communicates with issuing authorities via APIs to verify credentials without human intervention.

Globally, ICAO’s Public Key Directory (PKD) infrastructure will help verify chip-based passports. So, while these are not major challenges, there are technical and procedural aspects to be ironed out. The right discussions are happening, and we hope to see a successful proof of concept soon.

In general, Indian people tend to be less paranoid about their personal data compared to those in the West. For example, when travelling through London, Frankfurt or Dubai, you don’t have to register for any specific services. Now, if international travellers are transiting through India, do you think they might be more concerned about their personal data due to cultural differences in trustworthiness? Could this pose a challenge for them to sign up for such services?

So, this is where communication between government departments will play a crucial role in establishing the same level of trust. I believe it’s the right time for India to embrace the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, especially with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) already in place. If GDPR and DPDP can align in terms of privacy regulations, data exchange between countries could become smoother. However, it’s true that the maturity level of privacy practices in different countries needs to be evaluated and considered moving forward.

There are existing challenges, as some countries, even within the current framework, do not allow passport data to be validated through the PKD. These countries have strict restrictions in place. So, solutions will need to coexist, and navigating synergies within these areas will be important. These challenges will always exist, but we’ll have to find ways to work around them.

With rapid advancements in AI and facial recognition technology, how do you see Digi Yatra evolving over the next few years? Are there any specific upgrades or features in development?

We heavily rely on facial recognition technology, which has significantly matured over time. While there may not be drastic changes in that space, AI will play a crucial role in improving security measures like live detection and anti-spoofing technologies. These algorithms will continue to evolve, enhancing overall safety.

In terms of Digi Yatra’s roadmap, we are focusing on AI for multilingual chatbots. This will help passengers navigate the app more easily, handling tasks like onboarding and managing credentials. We are also working on integrating verified credentials (VCs) from passports and DigiLocker-based driving licences. While not directly AI-related, these features are essential for expanding international flows and visa requirements. AI will be embedded into document scanning processes to detect fraud, spoofing, and other security threats.

A key priority is maintaining a privacy-preserving architecture. We have developed a system that allows passenger journeys without storing data centrally. We plan to make our SDK available to other entities so they can innovate and use verified credentials in areas like hotels, where personal identification is still manual.

Additionally, we are exploring integrations with airline and OTA apps to streamline processes like sharing boarding passes. While full automation isn’t possible due to privacy concerns, we aim to simplify these processes with user consent in mind.

These are the main upgrades and features you can expect to see in Digi Yatra over the next few years.

Since you’re incorporating multiple languages into a chatbot, do you think it will be challenging to ensure accuracy across India’s diverse languages?

India’s DPDP Act mandates handling 22 languages, which poses a challenge, but we are preparing for it. The Bhashini project is key to addressing this, as it supports multiple languages. India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) allows different government departments to communicate seamlessly through APIs, something that surprised many on a global level. While others still rely on machine-readable documents, we’ve advanced with API-based solutions. Similarly, integrating innovations from Bhashini should help us manage these challenges. You’re right—language diversity presents difficulties, and there’s no perfect solution initially, but we are evolving and will get there.

Do you have any other use case potential for GenAI?

To be honest, we haven’t implemented a heavy GenAI solution yet because we don’t have a direct use case. GenAI typically relies on a lot of data, and since we’re a privacy-by-design system with no stored data, we’re still deliberating on how to best utilise it. One potential use is in chatbots. We have a lot of data on social media, our website, and other public channels. Then why not scan that data to build our own library?

Most GenAI systems are trained on data, so we could scan our existing customer responses on platforms like Twitter and app stores, analyse them, and develop solutions that align with our customer response style. This would be a one-time GenAI activity, not an ongoing process. While it’s not a full GenAI implementation, making this system multilingual could expand its role. For now, our main focus remains creating seamless video communication (VC) journeys without storing any data.

We recently started a campaign called DKYC, Don’t Know Your Customer. One of the biggest challenges we faced was building a privacy-preserving solution. Even though we knew we were not storing any data, the perception needed work. When people click a photograph, they often feel it’s being stored somewhere. They wonder how we can enable a use case without storing data.

To address this, we’ve been focusing on communicating that there is no data storage happening in the system. We’re working on changing this perception. Now, alongside eKYC, we have DKYC, which still allows us to provide help without storing personal data.

As Digi Yatra’s reach expands, what lessons have you learned from the programme’s rollout across Indian airports, and how might these lessons shape future improvements in user experience and operational efficiency?

One of the key lessons we’ve learned from the rollout of Digi Yatra is the importance of perception and communication. Even if a solution is highly secure and privacy-focused, it’s crucial to educate users. Many passengers weren’t aware that there is no central data storage in Digi Yatra, despite it being one of the most privacy-preserving solutions today. We’ve been working to address this by training airport ground teams to subtly inform passengers about privacy while helping them onboard the app.

Another major challenge has been stakeholder alignment, especially within the aviation ecosystem, which involves a vast array of parties—from airport security and operations to various vendors and government agencies. As Digi Yatra expands to international airports, the number of stakeholders will only increase, making collaboration even more critical.

Operationally, we learned that having major airlines onboarded to the platform from day one is essential for a seamless experience. If passengers belong to airlines not yet integrated, their experience is disrupted. Additionally, some passengers mistakenly think Digi Yatra eliminates the need for security checks, but they still need to undergo frisking and bag scans, which are separate from the programme’s purpose.

During the initial rollout, we also realised that airports need to install Digi Yatra infrastructure at all boarding gates, as we can’t predict which gates will be used by passengers on any given day. These operational insights have shaped our approach as we scale, allowing us to grow from three airports in December 2022 to 24 today.

What is your vision for the next five years? How do you envision this journey unfolding in that time frame?

Our vision remains unchanged—to create a seamless, “walk in the park” experience for every passenger. While we’ve made significant progress, there are still operational aspects we’re refining, particularly airport-specific nuances. We’re working to standardise these processes across all touchpoints. For example, some airports have already adopted the boarding cell backdrop, while others are still in the process. Achieving a completely seamless process, especially internationally, is a big focus for us. Our goal is to make the airport experience as effortless as possible for all passengers.

A key milestone for us will be when every passenger can experience this smooth journey from entry to boarding. We aim to bring smiles to as many people as possible. I recall an early interaction with a 60-year-old passenger, who was curious about DigiYatra. He approached us asking how to register and learn more. We were surprised that someone from that demographic was interested. After guiding him through the process, he scanned his face and walked through the gate without any other steps. He was initially sceptical but, after experiencing it, he smiled and said, “It worked!” That moment truly reflected our vision: if we can bring smiles like that to passengers, we’ll consider our mission a success.