In a bid to promote digital education and online storage of all academic awards, students will be allowed to have a digital account in the next three years, thanks to the Central government for taking such initiatives.

“All students in the country will have a digital account under National Academic Depository (NAD) in the next three years, thereby all certificates issued by various academic institutions will be credited in digital format through digitalisation,” National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) Managing Director and CEO G V Nageswara Rao said on Wednesday.

Though the CBSE was the first to join the NAD to give digitalization of certificates a further push, 300 more universities across the country are willing to join hands with the digital initiative of the government.

“Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) became the first academic institution to join the NAD through NDML and digitalised students certificates of 40 universities so far,” Rao said.

“Another 300 universities are willing to join the NAD, paving the way for the digitalisation the certifications of all students in the country through Aadhaar number in the next three years,” he added.

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An initiative of Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) for digital issuance, storage and access of all academic certificates issued by academic institutions in the country, the NAD is implemented through NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML), a wholly owned subsidiary of NSDL which is the largest depository of India.

“The academic depository would eliminate fake and forged certificates and enable online, electronic authentication of certificates issued by employers and higher education institutions,” he added.

The objective of the NAD is to provide an online storehouse of all academic awards such as certificates, diplomas, degrees, mark-sheets duly digitised and lodged by academic institutions.

Another primary function of the NAD is not only to ensure easy access to and retrieval of an academic award but also to validate and guarantee its authenticity and safe storage.

According to government data, the NAD comprises two interoperable digital depositories — CDSL Ventures Limited (CVL) and NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML). These digital depositories ensure hardware, network facilities and software of prescribed quality for smooth and secured operationalisation of NAD.

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