Union Cabinet approves establishment of National Academic Depository

The Union Cabinet on 27 October 2016 gave its green signal for establishment and operationalisation of a National Academic Depository (NAD).

The National Academic Depository aims at bringing another dimension and enhancement of the vision of Digital India.

The Budget Speech of 2016-17 of the Finance Benefit, Arun Jaitley, incorporated the 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.

Key highlights of the National Academic Depository

• The NAD will be established and operationalised within the next three months.

• It will be rolled out throughout the country in 2017-2018.

• It will 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 will 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.

• It will verify academic awards online on the same day of request initiated by any authorized user.

• It 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.