The government has set the ball rolling for the creation of an online database where all academic certificates will be available in digital format by the end of next year.
Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar inaugurated a national conference for generating awareness of the plan among stakeholders here on Friday. “Establishment of a National Academic Depository is a step towards the Digitial India vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Mr. Javadekar said.
“It is high time the academic awards are verified and authenticated, accessed and retrieved in a digital depository.”
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Secretary (Higher Education) in the Ministry Vinay Sheel Oberoi said the idea was to make available information on any award to any person other than the student, “only with the explicit consent of the student.” He requested all academic institutions to get on board promptly to make the NAD a reality.
A series of training workshops will also be organised region-wise to enable better dissemination and understanding of the idea.
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The introduction of a digital database, where institutions can upload all the degrees for authentication, is expected to curb the problem of fake academic degrees, officials say.
This apart, this database can also enable recruiters to ensure that the degrees of a candidate are genuine. The practice of attested copies may be a thing of the past, as the database would be an authentic source of secure information about a person’s academic claims.
This would also help the degree-holders themselves, as the data would be secure in the depository. At present, loss of documents and damage to these make their re-issue a cumbersome bureaucratic process. In some universities, the issue of degrees takes a lot of time and some students do not collect their degrees for years as they shift from the place. The NID would make these degrees easily accessible.