IISER Kolkata - NAD Cell

National Academic Depository

IISER Kolkata is a part of the National Academic Depository (NAD), an online repository of academic awards lodged by academic institutions. This has been instituted by Government of India through the University Grants Commission.

Concept

The Union Cabinet has approved establishing a digital depository of academic awards to be known as National Academic Depository (NAD) on the pattern of securities depository in its meeting held on 27th October, 2016.Consequent upon the approval of Cabinet, the Government in exercise of powers conferred under section 20(1) of University Grants Commission Act,1956 has designated University Grants Commission (UGC) as an authorised body to enter into a tripartite agreement on behalf of all Central Higher Educational Institutions (CHEIs), Institutions of National Importance (INIs) and Boards with the wholly owned subsidiaries of the depositories registered under SEBI Act, 1992, namely NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) and CDSL Ventures Limited (CVL) initially for a period of three years for the purposes of establishment of NAD comprising of two interoperable digital depositories.

The Ministry of Education in its notification in March 2020 has announced that University Grants Commission (UGC) is authorized to implement National Academic Depository (NAD) as a permanent scheme, in co-operation with the DigiLocker as a single entity. The University Grants Commission with the concurrence of Ministry of Education had notified "The University Grants Commission (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations. 2021" in the Gazette of India on 29th July, 2021. In this connection, the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) platform has been developed by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under DigiLocker framework, with facility/functionality of opening Academic Account by the students and on-boarding of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs).

National Education Policy, 2020 envisions the establishment of the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), a national-level facility which will be a bank for academic purposes with students as academic account holders. Each account holder is provided with a unique ABC identity. ABC is a digital store-house entity of academic credit database of Higher Education Institution with students as its stakeholder. ABC ensures the opening, closure and validation of Academic Bank Accounts and shall also ensure credit verification, credit accumulation, and credit transfer or redemption for students

Features of NAD

Operate in fully online mode
Allow lodging of Academic awards in a digital format, maintaining the integrity of access to the database and of the awards lodged in the database.
Allow students to retrieve their lodged academic awards at any time.
Allow employers and other person with prior approval of the concerned student to verify the authenticity of any academic award.
Maintain the authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of the database.

Benefits of NAD for Academic Institutions

Permanent and safe record of keeping all academic awards issued
No need for issuing duplicate academic awards, students can get it from NAD
Effective deterrence to fake and forged paper certificates
Efficient, effective and transparent administration.

Benefits of NAD for Students

Immediate availability of academic awards upon upload by Academic Institution
Online, permanent record of academic awards
No risk of losing, spoiling, damaging the academic awards
Anytime, anywhere and convenient access to academic awards

Benefits of NAD for Verifiers

Online, quick and reliable verification of academic awards (with prior consent of the student concerned)
Access to authenticated copy of academic awards
No risk of fake and forged Certificates.
Reduction in cost, time and efforts for verification