A National Academic Depository (NAD) which will digitally store school learning certificates, degrees and other academic awards of higher education institutions will be operationalised in next three months, with the Union Cabinet giving its nod to such a proposal by the HRD ministry.
The depository would be established and operationalised within the next three months and would be rolled out throughout the country in 2017-18, the Union Cabinet decided today.
"The Cabinet has approved today establishment of NAD, this a really important milestone in higher education because it will bring transparency," HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said adding that "tampering, fake degrees will become a thing of the past".
He added that not that present and future but past certificates will also be put in the depository.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget speech in February had incorporated the commitment to establish a Digital Depository for certificates, degrees and other academic awards, 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 such as 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 authorised users. NAD will verify academic awards online on the same day of request initiated by any authorised user.
Requests for access to academic awards from potential employers, and academic institutions would be only on the basis of consent of the student.
In another decision, the Cabinet also gave ex-post facto nod for the formation of an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Berhampur Society in Odisha and its operationalisation in a transit campus from the current academic year 2016-17.
Speaking about the new IISER, Javadekar said that the government is keen to boost education in eastern India as well as focus on research.
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