Major relief for nurses in Karnataka, as State digitizes registration process

Bengaluru: Lakhs of nurses registered with the Karnataka State Nursing Council (KSNC) no longer need to navigate congested Gandhinagar in old Bengaluru to renew their professional credentials.

In a landmark shift toward digital governance, the council has enabled nurses across India and abroad to complete their registration renewal entirely online through the Aadhaar-DigiLocker platform.

Until recently, any nurse who had completed their training from a Karnataka-based institution was required, every five years, to physically visit the council’s office tucked away in Gandhinagar a congested neighbourhood where parking is a major challenge.

Under the revamped process, a nurse can apply for renewal through DigiLocker from anywhere in the country. Within a few days, council registrar reviews and approves the application and the renewed certificate is mailed directly to the applicant’s DigiLocker account.

A large proportion of nursing professionals in Karnataka are women, including a substantial number who travel from Kerala to pursue nursing education in the state.

While the DigiLocker-based system was introduced in August 2025, it was initially available only for fresh registrations.

Thereupon, Medical Education and Skill Development Minister Dr. Sharanprakash Patil took note of their difficulty and directed the council to rectify the problem.

On International Women’s Day, the Minister formally inaugurated the digitised renewal process at the auditorium of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI).

He said: “For the first time in the entire country, over 2,000 newly-graduated nurses have received their registration certificates through Aadhaar-DigiLocker. Earlier, nurses had to visit the council office in person, which was deeply inconvenient. Recognising this difficulty, we have now put in place a seamless online system for both registration and renewal.”