7-year-old Prince becomes first digital citizen of Bhutan

Bhutan's Royal Highness The Gyalsey (Prince) Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, has become the country's first digital citizen by onboarding with the Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI) mobile wallet, The Bhutan Live reported.

According to The Bhutan Live, the NDI uses cutting-edge technology to provide citizens with secure and verifiable identity credentials, ensuring the privacy and protection of their personal information. The system uses the "self-sovereign identity" model based on Decentralised Identity (DID) technology, which gives residents more control over their personal information and who can access it.

Jigme Tenzing, acting secretary for GovTech Bhutan, was quoted by The Bhutan Live as saying, "We are honoured and privileged to have His Royal Highness as the first digital citizen of Bhutan. The launch of Bhutan's National Digital Identity based on the Self-Sovereign Identity model, is a major step forward in transforming the way services are delivered in both the public and private sectors. This flagship initiative of GovTech will provide secure and verifiable digital identities to citizens, laying a strong foundation for our digital future. We are delighted to have worked closely with the excellent team at DHI on developing the technologies for Bhutan NDI. We hope this example of using technology to transform lives while safeguarding privacy will inspire and motivate others to follow suit."

The Union government had recently announced that it was going to help Bhutan build its third international internet gateway.

According to the Indian Embassy in Bhutan, the government will facilitate a concessional rate to reduce the cost of the gateway's operation. This new initiative is part of the expanding India-Bhutan digital collaboration.

India is collaborating with Bhutan on various technology initiatives. An optical fibre backbone has been provided at the village level across all 20 districts of Bhutan under Bhutan's flagship programme 'Digital Drukul', The Bhutan Live reported.

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