The Union cabinet on Thursday accorded approval to establishing and operationlising the National Academic Depository (NAD) which envisages doing away with difficulties faced in collecting, maintaining, and presenting physical paper certificates, an official said.
NAD will be operationalised within the next three months and will be rolled out fully throughout the country in the next fiscal, said an official release issued here following a meeting of the Union cabinet.
NAD will develop an online portfolio of all education certificates across academic institutes (Universities/Institutes/Boards) which can be submitted easily for employment, higher education, and loan and are easily trusted and verified.
NAD integrates directly with Boards/Universities which issue certificates and hence ensures authenticity of certificate records.
Academic awards can be verified and authenticated, accessed and retrieved from the digital depository.
In this year's General Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had incorporated the plan of NAD for school learning certificates, degrees and other academic awards of higher education institutions, on the lines of a Securities Depository.