Youth Incorporated Magazine

Taking the Digital India Scheme of PM Narendra Modi one step further government has now declared to digitise all the educational certificates. A National Academic Depository (NAD) on the lines of a security depository is set to come up in the next three months to digitally store school learning certificates, degrees and other academic awards of institutions of higher education.

The statement said, “The decision aims at bringing another dimension and enhancement of the vision of Digital India,” 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.

It had to be noted that the responsibility for authenticity of data digitally uploaded would be of Academic Institutions. The depositories will ensure the integrity of the data in the NAD. According to the reports, 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.

NAD is given the responsibility to maintain the authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of its database. It will also train and facilitate academic institutions 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.