National Academic Depository

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Cabinet approves establishment of National Academic Depository

The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has accorded its approval for establishment and operationalisation of a National Academic Depository (NAD). The decision aims at bringing another dimension and enhancement of the vision of Digital India.

The NAD would be established and operationalised within the next three months and would be rolled out throughout the country in 2017/18.

The Finance Minister's Budget Speech of 201617, in February this year, incorporated this commitment to establish a Digital Depository for school learning certificates, degrees and other academic awards of Higher Education Institutions, on the pattern of a Securities Depository.

The NAD would be operationalised by NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) and CDSL Ventures, Limited (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 the data in the NAD. The NAD will register educational institutions/boards/eligibility assessment bodies, students and other users/verifying entities like banks, employer companies, government agencies and academic institutions.

It will provide digital or a printed copy of the academic award with security features to the students or other authorized users. NAD will verify academic awards online on the same day of request initiated by any authorized user.

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.

NAD shall 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.

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National Academic Depository - A One-stop Portal For All Your Academic Awards

With the rise of technology, more and more institutions are switching to the online medium. The salient features of embracing the technological media is its efficiency, simplicity and the effortlessness in everyday lives. With a focus on digitising India, the Government of India has took progressive steps towards bringing administrative and academic reforms through the use of digital media. The process to develop such an online academic award portal requires ease of process. Be it verification, issuing duplicates or enhancing transparency, maintaining the integrity to access the online database is essential.

 Presenting National Academic Depository (NAD), a one-stop academic award portal designed by CDSL to address factors related to storage, authenticity and verifiability of academic awards. NAD is an online portal where awards, marksheets, degree certificates, provision certificates and transfer certificates can be stored digitally in cloud based systems. NAD provides an electronic certificate facility to the students, institutions and employers, thus validating easy retrieval, safe storage and authenticity. Furthermore, students have the option to give consent to share their electronic degree certificates to a verifying entity who requires access, thus preserving the privacy.

 A digital depository, NAD is essential for academic institutions, students and verifiers. With NAD, academic institutions can upload digital marksheets, digital transcripts and digital convocation certificates digitally while students can store, retrieve and forward their electronic certificates and verifiers can know about the authenticity through certificate verification. One of the salient feature is that the electronic certificates eliminates the spoilage and the forgery of the degree certificates. With a focus to provide an efficient solution through digital format of academic awards 24/7, National Academic Depository is significantly beneficial initiative for Academic Institutions, Students and Verifiers.

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Union Minister of Human Resource Development inaugurates the National Conference for awareness on National Academic Depository

A National Conference for awareness on National Academic Depository was inaugurated by Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Human Resource Development in New Delhi today. 

Establishment of a National Academic Depository is a step towards the Digital India vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, said the Union Minister for Human Resource Development. The Union Minister called upon all participants to resolve to target year 2017 to roll out use of National Academic Depository. He further added, we are witnessing change here; way of life is changed due to technology. He further stated that technology has become all pervasive in all walks of life, whether it is shopping, booking railways ticket, banking or mobile recharge; we have witnessed a huge transformation in the way we used to function. 

The Minister stated that the securities depositories in the country have already made dematerialization of the financial securities and have been ensuring the safety of the financial wealth of the investors. This system can now be replicated for the educational awards. It is high time the academic awards are verified and authenticated, accessed and retrieved in a digital depository. He encouraged the institutions present to change the mindset by welcoming technology in the form of NAD and make it a reality. Union Minister emphasised upon 3 things, change in mindset, absorbing ‘tried, tested and trusted technology’ and thus enhancing transparency and authenticity. 

The Government of India is committed towards bringing administrative and academic reforms through the use of technology for delivery of efficient services to all stakeholders. Towards this end, Government intends to establish a digital depository of academic awards to be known as National Academic Depository (NAD) on the pattern of securities depository. The NAD would help in validating the authenticity of these awards and ensuring their safe storage and easy retrieval. Maintaining academic awards in a digital depository would provide benefit to educational institutions, students and employers by enabling online access and retrieval; eliminate fraudulent practices such as forging of certificates and mark-sheets and facilitate validation. NAD would be available online 24X7 access to the stakeholders. 

Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, MOS (HRD) echoed the views of Hon’ble HRM and added that now even the poorest of the poor are able to seek access to higher education, thereby increasing the number of individuals seeking educational certificates. The need for such a measure as NAD is well established. The initiative, he stated, will be a footprint into a new era of 21st century. 

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary (Higher Education), MHRD, Shri Vinay Sheel Oberoi, said that the cardinal principle in the NAD system is for any award to be made available to any person other than student, only with the explicit consent of the student. He also requested all the academic institutions to get on board quickly and requested the participants to disseminate the experience with others involved in the process. 

A presentation on NAD model was made by the depositories, wherein they explained the role of various stakeholders viz. Academic Institutions (AIs), students and verifiers and the depositories. A live demo of uploading and lodging the academic awards on the NAD system was also made by the depositories. This was followed by Question & Answer session wherein the various queries/clarifications raised by the participants were addressed. 

Joint Secretary (Higher Education), MHRD, requested representatives from various Central higher educational institutions and State public universities participated, to engage actively in the presentations and live demos that followed. A series of training workshops are being organised, region-wise. The event ended with the vote of thanks to the participant academic institutions.