New Delhi: A new revolution will sweep across the academic landscape in India, which is would provide benefit to educational institutions, students and employers. The Government of India plans to establish a digital depository of academic awards to be known as National Academic Depository (NAD) on the pattern of securities depository.
Maintaining academic awards in a digital depository will immensely help 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. Speaking at a National Conference for awareness on NAD held today (9 September 2016) in New Delhi, Union Minister of HRD Mr Prakash Javadekar called upon all participants to resolve to target year 2017 to roll out use of this academic digital depository.
The NAD would help in validating the authenticity of these awards and ensuring their safe storage and easy retrieval. 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.
Union Minister emphasised upon 3 things, change in mindset, absorbing ‘tried, tested and trusted technology’ and thus enhancing transparency and authenticity.
Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, MOS (HRD) echoed the views of the Mr Javadekar 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. A series of training workshops will be organised, region-wise to bring awareness on NAD among its various stakeholders.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary (Higher Education), MHRD, Mr 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 bring awareness on the NAD and its features.
