CITIZEN
Why publicThe storyCitizen GraphTry itManifesto
How Citizen works
Open demo

An independent prototype of a public super app for India

The super app that will never sell you a credit card.

CRED knows your credit score. District knows your Friday night. Paytm knows what you paid for. Each of them earns when you take the card, the loan or the ticket. Citizen is what a public super app could be: one honest layer between your life and the government, in your hands, with nothing to sell you and nothing to hide from you. Your record, your peace of mind.

Open demoGitHub

28 August – 7 September 2026

Since Round 1

We kept the same idea: one living citizen record. Here’s what we added and improved after the first submission.

What we added and improved

  • A Home that speaks first: reminders drawn from your record, a record-health summary, and next steps after marriage.
  • Checks before you begin: what’s ready, missing or mismatched, what must happen first, and what a completed step makes possible.
  • Clearer responsibility: see whether the next move is yours, a family member’s or the authority’s, with dates and consequences where known.
  • More readable marriage consent: review the exact details being shared, their source, the purpose, recipient and expiry before agreeing. Either partner can start.
  • More tightly scoped family help: approved access shows only shared property papers and documents, not the other person’s whole profile. Access can be removed.
  • A say in the outcome: mark a finished task as still unresolved, then mark it solved later or reopen it without losing its history.
  • RTI requests and grievances: start from an existing record, carry its details into a draft, and track the simulated submission and expected reply date.
  • A fuller Government Timeline and visible action consequences: see who acted, what changed, and which original matter a follow-up belongs to.
  • A simpler My records page, with a list first and an optional interactive map connecting family, work, property, documents and services.
  • Better continuity: saved workflow steps and witness choices survive reloads; updated sample records are offered without silently erasing progress.
  • Clearer mobile screens and more English, Hindi and Kannada copy. Missing eligibility facts stay unknown rather than becoming a confident yes.
  • A public manifesto, a fuller landing-page story, Ask Citizen for common project questions, and a rebuilt two-minute Round 2 video.
  • A printable case brief and short demo routes: carry one matter and its history forward, and try a failed send without losing the draft.

What the other 249 taught us

Lessons from our 2 September review of the Top 250 directory, excluding Citizen. These are our interpretations of the pages and demos we could inspect, not a full test of every product.

  • Another chat box or document wallet isn’t enough. Show how one action changes the same record across Home, Money, Documents and History.
  • Show the blocker before the form. Readiness checks, prerequisites and a named next person are more useful than a vague progress bar.
  • Make trust inspectable. People should see where a detail came from and exactly what they are agreeing to share.
  • “Closed” doesn’t always mean fixed. Let the citizen say whether the result helped, and keep the evidence for a follow-up.
  • Go deeper, not wider. A connected journey that remembers your work says more than a long menu of disconnected services.

Still an independent prototype. All personal records are fictional; government responses, submissions and payments are simulated.

File · 4821
PassportS98***21
Verified
PANAXXPS**21K
Verified
Citizen recordVerified
AS
Arjun Sharma29 yrs · J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru
Aadhaar
XXXX XXXX 4821
PAN
AXXPS**21K
  • Documents7
  • Obligations5
  • Money due₹10,340
Simulated
24 active connectionsUpdated 28 Aug 2026

Round 2 · Follow through

Your problem isn’t fixed. Your record shouldn’t start over.

Government work should not make us start over. A request can be submitted while the original problem remains. Citizen keeps the issue, the evidence and the next action together.

  1. 01

    The disconnected problem

    Your PAN name is wrong. You send a correction. The old name is still there. A follow-up should not ask you to tell the whole story again.

  2. 02

    The Round 2 improvement

    Mark it unresolved, prepare a grievance or RTI from the same matter, and keep a readable case brief with its history.

  3. 03

    The proof is in your record

    See exactly what changed. Reload and continue. Print the case brief or save it as a PDF from your browser.

Our focus is continuity. Each action becomes part of the citizen’s record, ready for the next service.

Try the continuity route

Help your parent without starting over.

Sunita shares access to her property paperwork. Arjun views and saves the shared documents from his own profile. She can revoke access; the history stays.

Try Sunita → Arjun

Why public

Every super app on your phone is paid for by your data.

Finance apps push credit cards and personal loans. Entertainment apps push tickets and offers. Payment apps push everything. Not one of them can stay neutral, because not one of them is paid to be neutral.

YouPrivate super appLendersAdvertisersTomorrow's offerYour profile →
YouCitizenGovernment departments← Proof, deadlines, permissionsNothing sold. Nothing leaves.
CRED, District, Paytm and friendsCitizen
Earns whenCRED, District, Paytmyou take the credit card, the loan or the ticketCitizenyour work with the government is done
Knows you becauseCRED, District, Paytmit tracked every payment and every tapCitizenyou already told the government, once
Your record isCRED, District, Paytma profile it owns and sells to lendersCitizenyours to hold, share and take back
When you are doneCRED, District, Paytmit wants you back tomorrow with an offerCitizenit stays quiet until something changes

India launched UPI when the world said it could not be done. Today it is ordinary for 1.4 billion people!

140 dots. One crore people each. Every one of them uses UPI like tap water!

Citizen is the same bet: a public super app where every service builds on your record, instead of making you start over. India can lead the way.

Read the manifesto

Already here

Half of Citizen already exists.

Aadhaar sign-in and DigiLocker won. Every KYC in the country leans on them, and most of your documents already sit in one place. UPI made paying the government as easy as paying a friend. What is left is the part nobody has connected. Yet!

Connected already

Verified
  • Aadhaar sign-inWho you are, proven in one tap.
  • DigiLockerYour documents, in one place.
  • UPIPay anyone, including the government.
  • e-KYCBanks and telecoms trust the same proof.
  • FASTagTolls paid without stopping.

Still scattered

Needs Citizen
  • RTIAsk the government a question, then chase the answer.
  • SchemesHundreds of them, each with its own form and portal.
  • FamilyMarriage, children, parents, nominees: proved again at every office.
  • Property and vehiclesOwnership, tax, challans, insurance, each in a different app.
  • ObligationsDeadlines that arrive by SMS, if at all.
  • Voter roll and ration cardA new address means two more offices.
  • Pensions and PFLife certificates and claims, filed by hand every year.
  • Land records and courtsKhata, mutation, hearings: you track them yourself.
  • Business complianceGST, MCA, Udyam, labour: four logins for one shop.
  • CertificatesBirth, death, caste, income: fetched again for every scheme.

Citizen is the connection layer for the second column, built on the first!

How this started

I did not know UMANG existed.

The government does many things, and each thing arrives with its own name: a scheme, a portal, an app, a deadline. Names pile up faster than anyone can learn them. By the time a message reaches you, it has often changed shape or lost its meaning.

Citizen is our answer: a gazette with an audience of one. Everything happening in your name, from payments to notices to applications and benefits, lands in one brief, with suggestions for what could help you next.

UMANG already puts hundreds of services behind one door. It still asks you to arrive knowing what you need: recognise the scheme, find the department, decide whether it matters to you. Most people never get that far.

Home in the demo

ASArjun SharmaSimulated

Where things stand

5
with you
1
with government
1
unread
  • ₹500 traffic challan for Hosur Road4 days left
  • File GSTR-3B for August23 days left
  • BBMP property tax due 31 October 202664 days left
Arjun's brief, built from his record. Try it with one tap.
  1. 01

    What changed?

    Notices, payments, applications and document updates.

  2. 02

    What applies to me?

    Relevant obligations, benefits and services, with the reason shown.

  3. 03

    What should I do next?

    The right action, using records already connected to you.

Home in this demo already works this way. It shows what changed and what could help you before you ask.

The Citizen Graph

One citizen. Every connected fact.

This is Arjun's record shown as a graph. Identity sits at the centre. Family, work, assets, documents and government history connect around it.
Citizen recordArjun Sharma24 active connectionsMoney due ₹10,340₹9,840
Family2
Property1
Address1
Work1
Business1
Vehicle1
Documents78+1 receipt
Benefits2
Applications1
Obligations54Paid
Notices3
Identity arrives with evidence.One address and seven documents. Later services reuse them instead of asking again.
The record expands into a life.Family, employment, business, vehicle and property relationships give each fact context.
Services read the same context.Benefits, applications, payments and notices reuse the same details.
One action. Every view updates.Arjun pays the ₹500 challan. Obligations drop to 4, a receipt joins Documents, Money due falls to ₹9,840, and Activity records the write.
Every result lands back in your record.A payment removes a due amount, creates a receipt and joins the same history that Home shows.
  1. Identity arrives with evidence. One address and seven documents. Later services reuse them instead of asking again.
  2. The record expands into a life. Family, employment, business, vehicle and property relationships give each fact context.
  3. Services read the same context. Benefits, applications, payments and notices reuse the same details.
  4. One action. Every view updates. Arjun pays the ₹500 challan. Obligations drop to 4, a receipt joins Documents, Money due falls to ₹9,840, and Activity records the write.
  5. Every result lands back in your record. A payment removes a due amount, creates a receipt and joins the same history that Home shows.
Arjun's record · 11 groups · 24 linksScroll to build the graphGraph built

What most fixes miss

The obvious fixes only go so far.

Cleaner screens, chat boxes and dashboards each help a little. None of them fixes the real problem: every service still starts from zero.

Simpler interfaceMakes one screen easier
ChatbotAnswers a question, then forgets you
Ask in your own wordsTakes you to the right service
DashboardSummarises tasks that already exist

Each of these polishes one door. Citizen changes what is behind every door: one record that carries your proof, your deadlines and your permissions from one government service to the next.

Now watch it work.

Each demo below works on the same record. Change one thing and every screen shows the result.

  1. 01A missing EPFO contribution becomes a grievance. Home shows it as Submitted.
  2. 02A PAN mismatch reuses Aadhaar evidence instead of asking for it again.
  3. 03A paid challan leaves Money and creates a receipt in Documents.
  4. 04Sharing needs consent, and family access can be removed anytime.
Open demo

Where design stops

Day 40

A claim can still be pending behind a beautiful status screen.

A better screen cannot clear a backlog.

If the cause is a queue of officers, a policy, limited staff or a department database, a redesign cannot fix it. So Citizen sticks to what a record can do.

An interface cannot

  • Change policy or eligibility rules
  • Add officers or processing capacity
  • Repair a department database
  • Approve a claim waiting on human judgment

What Citizen changes

  • Carry verified evidence into the next service
  • Show the current state and next available action
  • Stop each task from restarting at zero
  • Return receipts, permissions and history to one record

Before you ask

Fair questions

The objections we hear most, answered straight.

See what is real and what is mocked
01Every state has its own portals and processes. How can one app integrate them all?

It does not have to. Citizen is a layer over the record, not a replacement for any portal. Aadhaar, DigiLocker and UPI already work in every state without asking a single one to rebuild; they set a common shape and let each department keep its process. Citizen asks for the same thing: publish what changed in a citizen's record, in one shape. The state keeps its workflow. The citizen stops carrying it. The graph in this demo already mixes central records (PAN, passport, GST), state records (RTO, marriage registration) and city records (BBMP) in one file.

02Isn't this just UMANG or DigiLocker again?

UMANG is a directory of services. DigiLocker is a locker of documents. Neither knows that your challan, your car and your address are the same story. Citizen starts from the record and its connections, so it can say what changed, what applies to you and what to do next before you search for anything.

03Why should the government build this and not a startup?

Because neutrality is the product. A private app has to earn from you eventually: a card, a loan, a ticket, your data. A public one is finished when your task is finished. UPI proved that public infrastructure can beat private convenience when it stays free and open, and India is the country that proved it.

04One record of everything sounds dangerous. What about privacy?

That record already exists, scattered across departments that copy it around by hand and never show you. Citizen makes it visible to its owner: every read and write on a timeline, consent asked inside the workflow that needs it, nothing deleted silently. Concentration without visibility is the dangerous version, and that is today.

05What happens when a department gets it wrong?

The record shows who holds the ball and since when, so a wrong entry cannot hide. Correction is a workflow, not a queue. In the demo you can raise a PAN and Aadhaar mismatch and watch the ownership move to the authority with a date on it.

06Isn't this too big to build?

Too big to build at once, and nobody should. Start on the foundations that already won and connect the scattered half one journey at a time: marriage, property, vehicles, obligations. This prototype does five journeys on a synthetic graph. UPI started the same way: one rail, a handful of banks, and then everyone.

07Is any of this real?

No. Every person is fictional, every number is synthetic, every government response is simulated and labelled as such, and nothing leaves your browser. The About page lists exactly what is real and what is mocked.

08Fine for Bengaluru. What about a tier-3 town where the phone is shared and the grandmother has never typed?

Citizen is a record and a set of workflows, not only a phone app, so the same record can be reached three ways. Self: the phone, as in this demo. Family: a son acting for his mother under an access she granted and can revoke, with every action recorded in her timeline in his name. In the demo, Sunita shares her paperwork and Arjun acts for her. Assisted: a trusted helper across a counter, the same way. India already runs the largest assisted operation on earth: around ten lakh Booth Level Officers, mostly government school teachers, anganwadi workers and municipal staff, keep the roll for over 95 crore voters door to door. Add more than five lakh Common Service Centres already doing assisted digital work in villages. The people are already there! What they lack is one record to act on, and a timeline that shows the citizen what was done in their name.

You control what gets shared.

You decide who sees what, and for what purpose. Consent stays visible and you can take it back anytime.

  • Ask before sharing records
  • Use approved government connections
  • Show who accessed what
  • Let people correct mistakes

Open a profile and try it.

Open demoRead the manifesto

Independent prototype · fictional records · simulated government services

Not affiliated with the Government of India or any state authority.

Built for Build What Moves India by Varun Mayya

ManifestoHow Citizen worksGitHubMusic: Bombay Summer