In yet another significant move, the Centre on Thursday announced digitisation of academic certificates and making them available online, that will also help check the menace of fake certificates.
The Cabinet cleared a National Academic Depository (NAD) for school certificates, degrees and academic awards which will be operationalised within three months.
“NAD will provide digital or a printed copy of the degree or academic award with security features to students or other authorised users. It will verify academic awards online on the same day of request initiated by any authorised user. Students and employers can access the verified documents digitally. It will also help candidates saving time which now they waste in completing verification formalities especially when they are an applicant in foreign institution,” HRD Ministry officials said.
The Union Cabinet accorded its approval for establishment and operationalisation of NAD. “NAD would be established and operationalised within the next three months and would be rolled out throughout the country in 2017-18,” an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting said, adding that the move is “aimed at bringing another dimension and enhancement of the vision of Digital India”.
The Depository would be operationalised by NSDl Database Management (NDMl) and CDSl Ventures (CVl) - two of the wholly owned subsidiaries of the Depositories registered under Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992.
Academic institutions would be responsible for the authenticity of data digitally uploaded by them into the system. The depositories will ensure the integrity of data.
The Depository will register educational institutions/ boards/eligibility assessment bodies, students and other users/verifying entities like banks, employer companies, Government agencies and academic institutions. “Requests for access to academic awards, for example, from potential employers, and academic institutions would be only on the basis of consent of the student,” said the statement.
NAD will maintain the authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of its database. It will also train and facilitate academic institutions/boards/ eligibility assessment bodies to efficiently lodge academic awards in the database.
The Finance Minister in his Budget Speech of 2016-17 had announced to set up a digital depository for school learning certificates, degrees and other academic awards, on the pattern of a Securities Depository.