Amritsar August 13, 2018 : Guru Nanak Dev University has signed an agreement with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) for implementation of the National Academic Depository (NAD) cell.
It may be recalled that on November 23, 2016, a communication was sent by the UGC to the university that under digital India vision, the government has decided to establish a digital depository of academic awards known as National Academic Depository (NAD). In the communication, the UGC has also stated that university has to set up a NAD cell and designate a nodal officer to implement the project.
Expressing pleasure over the agreement, Vice-Chancellor Prof. Jaspal Singh Sandhu said that “The syndicate of the university in its last meeting passed the resolution to have an agreement with NSDL. He said creating and maintaining a digital depository for the academic certificates is an important task that comes with a lot of responsibility. He said that this initiative would further strengthen the verification of academic credentials of the students by the prospective employers as well as institutions of higher studies. Prof. Sandhu said that with this initiative, students no longer have to obtain true copies of mark sheets or certificates duly certified at the time of admissions”.
Prof Sandhu further elaborated that Guru Nanak Dev University will initiate workshops and seminars for HODs, principals, fellows and other stakeholders to spread awareness on NAD. Besides, a NAD cell established at University with Dr. Preet Mohinder Singh Bedi as its nodal officer for the end to end coordination and implementation of NAD in the university.
Dr. Bedi appraised that under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Sandhu university is fully committed to implementing NAD which would provide benefit to educational institutions, students and employers by enabling online access of academic awards which will eliminate the need for persons to approach educational institutions for obtaining transcripts of such awards or marks-sheets for verification.
Registrar of the University, Prof. Kahlon further apprised that it would also eliminate fraudulent practices such as forging of certificates and mark-sheets, thereby reducing/eliminating reputational risk to Academic Institutions.
Prof. SS Behl, Dean Student’s Welfare said that NAD is an initiative of Ministry HRD to facilitate digital issuance, storage, access and verification of academic awards issued by Academic institutions.
In his message, Mr. Vijay Gupta of the NSDL said that NSDL is the first and largest depository in India, established in August 1996 and promoted by institutions of national stature has established a state-of-the-art infrastructure that handles most of the securities held and settled in dematerialized form in the Indian capital market. NSDL aims at ensuring the safety and soundness of Indian marketplaces by developing settlement solutions that increase efficiency, minimize risk and reduce costs. NSDL is one of the depositories which have been mandated by MHRD to develop the NAD system.