Uploading of students' certificates on NAD will be expedited: Deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister Dr C.N.Ashwath Narayana, who is also the Minister of Higher Education, said the uploading process of all academic records of students to the NAD (National Academic Depository) would be expedited and all necessary arrangements are being carried out towards this end.

The State is lagging behind in implementing the "Digi-locker" system and so far achieved less progress, he said on Wednesday, in a meeting.

Narayana further said, "Empowered committee, steering committee and project management unit have been entrusted with the responsibility to implement NAD at the earliest. Empowered group headed by Deputy Chief Minister & Higher Education Minister will make a quarterly review about the project progress. Steering group headed by Principal Secretary/Secretary of Higher Education will make a monthly review and the project management unit headed by a project director from Centre for E-Governance would drive the project execution at the ground level."

"Uploading of all the documents of the students, starting from class 10 to post-doctoral on NAD needs to be completed. This will help students, education institutions, and employers to access documents such as convocation certificates, mark sheets, and skill certificates. This also ensures safe storage, easy retrieval, and elimination of fraudulent practices such as unreasonable service fees, faking/forging of certificates and mark sheets," he explained.

The NAD was also expected to end the existing challenges such as having academic records in physical paper form, mutilation and loss of physical documents, time-consuming document retrieval process, and difficulty in proving authenticity.

This NAD (central digital depository of academic certificates) is also said to be risk-free besides ensuring safe record keeping, efficient record retrieval, and enabling quick and reliable verification. It is also viewed as a step forward in the direction of the 'Digital India' drive.

This process involves academic institutions (AI) uploading digitally signed certificates on NAD with students' DigiLocker ID and other relevant details. Students have to get registered on NAD via Aadhaar number and claim his/her certificates.