The National Academic Depository or NAD is a digital database provided by the Ministry of Human Resources (MHRD) of the Government of India to store the degree certificates and awards of students. Learn why you should always upload and store your educational qualification certificates with NAD.
The National Academic Depository or NAD was set up by the Ministry of Human Resources (MHRD) of the Government of India with the aim of creating a digital database of all the academic records of students all over the country. The chief goal was to move one step forward to the national mission of creating a digital India, as well as to curb the corrupt practices of producing counterfeit degree certificates and awards. In the future, all the academic institutions, usually referred to as AI by the NAD, will be required to upload the degree certificates of their students. However, until the country is totally digitalized, the students can themselves come forward and upload their own certificates and awards in the National Academic Depository. If you have an Aadhar number, the job will be even easier. However, before you should link your Aadhar number with your certificates, let us discuss in a nutshell how using the digital database of NAD can be beneficial for the student, the employer, and the government at the same time.
How students can benefit from uploading educational certificates at NAD
There are several advantages of storing one's educational degree certificates and awards in the dematerialized form in the digital database of NAD. From a student's perspectives, some of the key benefits include:
No risk of losing or damaging the physical degree certificates or awards They can be lost or damaged for a number of reasons including shifting of residence, natural calamities like floods and cyclones, accidental events like a fire catching those valuable papers, theft, damage incurred by domestic pets or children, misplacing the documents in a public transport or other modes of conveyance, and so on. The number of reasons can be endless. Even if nothing happens, physical degree certificates are subject to natural wear and tear over time. If you store your academic records in a digital database, all such risks can be totally eliminated.
No need to carry physical certificates. If you are going to apply for higher education or employment in a city other than your hometown or city of primary residence, you needed to carry all the physical documents along with you. However, if you store your academic records with NAD, you can just take printouts wherever and whenever necessary. This is also beneficial if you suddenly plan to apply for a job or higher education, and do not have your physical documents with you. Moreover, not carrying your physical documents everywhere also reduces the risk of an occurrence of loss or damage during travel.
Obtaining your certificates sooner. Once streamlined, uploading digital records will require significantly less time for academic institutions than printing and getting hardcopies ready. For a student, this means that as soon as your institution uploads your records on the database, you can access them the very next second. Sometimes, this becomes very crucial to meet application deadlines of jobs and higher studies positions.
Saving a little money. In most cases, academic institutions recover the expense of issuing physical certificates from the students. If everything becomes digital as planned, the expense is bound to come down.
How storing online records of education certificates at NAD helps your employer
Storing one's degree certificates and awards online not only helps that particular student but at the same time, it is immensely beneficial for their employers too. Let us see how the employing company or bank can gain from digital records:
Quick online verification of records.: If the applicant's records are digitally stored at the NAD, they can be quickly checked online by the employer or bank. Avoiding the hassles of verifying physical copies also mean a significant reduction in cost, time, and efforts for both the employer and the applicant.
Authentic records and no forgery.: If the applicant has his or her academic records stored on the National Academic Depository, the employer can be sure that they are authentic. This significantly reduces the risk of the employer or the bank getting fooled by forged or counterfeit certificates.
Beneficial for later use.: In several cases, the employer may require the educational certificates of the employees years after they got the job. For example, if an employee is considered for promotion, then educational records might again be required by the employer. In the case of physical documents, the employee has to furnish fresh photocopies of his or her educational certificates and awards. However, if they are stored digitally at the NAD, the employer can view or download them without bothering the employee much.
Advantages of using digital records at NAD for Academic Institutions
There are several advantages for the academic institutions also if all certificates are duly digitized and stored in the National Academic Depository. Some of them are:
Easier access to older records. In case the institution needs to go through older records (for example in a court case or inquiry), it is always advantageous to browse through digital records than searching those certificates in heaps of physical documents.
Saving time and money. Uploading and maintaining a digital database of records can significantly reduce the expense incurred and the amount of time required. These, in turn, will benefit the students as well.
Ready reference for researchers. Should anyone be interested in researching the performance of students of a particular academic institution, that researcher can find all the relevant and necessary documents in one place. Hence, for researches on education and educational administration, such digital databases are going to be hugely beneficial.
A comprehensive step towards a digital India
To conclude, we can say that the National Academic Depository is a comprehensive step towards a digitalized India. However, in order to make this totally successful, the students have to come forward and link educational certificates with Aadhar. Remember, the role of students in creating a digital India is no less important than the roles and responsibilities of Academic Institutions and NAD Depositories.
I heard about it but now got the opportunity to know this process fully.
Many students put the query that they have lost their educational certificates and mark sheets and how to get the duplicate ones from their institutions. Many of the institutions tell that they cannot give it due to either unavailability of records or the record are time-barred. In such situations, the students have to go for the legal affidavit that they have lost the original and the scanned or xerox copy may be accepted as proof. It is a big difficulty to manage this situation for the students. Now with this agency, NAD, available for depositing the certificates in a secure digital mode it would be a great help to the students as they need not worry and can keep everything there just like a safe digital wallet. I do not know whether people are availing this facility or not in a big way. Being a Govt depository it is very safe and secure. With more advancement in these digital technologies, we can hope that the uploading of data would be easier in future.
Innovations and novel applications make our life convenient. Digitalisation has brought a lot of convenience to people in modern life. It is the most effective solution obtained as of now for issues of time and storage space. It has influenced and entered into almost all strata of human work, leisure and daily routine matters. Every day the digitalisation is applied into more and more areas and fields. National Academic Depository is one such application relatively recent but becoming very popular and essential in our country.
In the NAD, the digitalisation is not only more effective as safe storage but also easily retrievable on demand. However, one direct trigger for the birth of NAD in our country was the prevalence of many frauds and forgeries happening in regard to the academic certificates and mark sheets. There were also many issues of damage by multiple handling of physical paper records and also the difficulty to find the genuineness while verifying the records submitted for a job and higher education. National Academic Depository solves all these problems in one stroke.
I am one who was quite impressed by the NAD concept. In fact, I had posted an article in ISC titled How to digitally access academic certificates from the National Academic Depository. It was about two years ago and the concept was just getting implemented in various institutions and universities. Reading that article along with this article will give more insights about the concept and benefits of NAD.
This article has included some updated points. We are yet to know about any issues faced by students or institutions, or verifiers with regard to NAD. It will be known only by largesse and experience. But time and human ingenuity will solve them also in due course.
I heard about it but now got the opportunity to know this process fully.
Many students put the query that they have lost their educational certificates and mark sheets and how to get the duplicate ones from their institutions. Many of the institutions tell that they cannot give it due to either unavailability of records or the record are time-barred. In such situations, the students have to go for the legal affidavit that they have lost the original and the scanned or xerox copy may be accepted as proof. It is a big difficulty to manage this situation for the students. Now with this agency, NAD, available for depositing the certificates in a secure digital mode it would be a great help to the students as they need not worry and can keep everything there just like a safe digital wallet. I do not know whether people are availing this facility or not in a big way. Being a Govt depository it is very safe and secure. With more advancement in these digital technologies, we can hope that the uploading of data would be easier in future.