**Summary:**
The National Academic Depository (NAD) is a digital initiative by the Government of India, under the Ministry of Education, designed to establish a secure online repository for educational documents such as certificates, diplomas, degrees, and mark sheets. Recognized academic institutions, boards, and assessment bodies upload educational documents to the NAD portal, facilitating easy access, retrieval, authenticity verification, and preservation for all stakeholders. The Digital India Corporation (DIC), operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, serves as the technical partner for the Ministry of Education in implementing the NAD initiative. To broaden NAD adoption, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with DIC, has undertaken extensive outreach efforts, including nationwide workshops, training sessions, and targeted awareness campaigns for institutions involved in uploading educational documents.
Building upon the NAD digital infrastructure, the Ministry of Education and DIC have jointly launched the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) scheme, which streamlines credit recognition, accumulation, transfer, and redemption. The ABC scheme utilizes a 12-digit unique identifier, the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR ID), to ensure seamless interaction among education ecosystem stakeholders and effectively map the lifelong learning journey. As of the date of this statement, 2,564 degree/credit-awarding institutions are registered on the ABC portal. More than 5 Crore APAAR IDs have been created within the higher education ecosystem, with 4.62 Crore credit records mapped to these IDs on the ABC portal. The NAD platform currently holds over 103 crore uploaded digital educational documents.
Key Entities Referenced
Ministry of Education: A ministry of the Government of India responsible for education.
National Academic Depository: A digital repository for educational documents including certificates, diplomas, degrees, and marksheets.
Digital India Corporation: The technical partner for Ministry of Education for implementing NAD initiative. It operates under the Ministry of Electronics Information Technology.
Ministry of Electronics Information Technology: A ministry of the Government of India.
Academic Bank of Credits: A scheme launched by the Ministry of Education that streamlines credit recognition, accumulation, transfer, and redemption.
Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry: A 12-digit unique identifier created under the ABC scheme for seamless interaction amongst the stakeholders of the education ecosystem.
Dr. MALLU RAVI: Member of Parliament who asked the question about National Academic Depository.
DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR: Minister of State in the Ministry of Education.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-2503
ANSWERED ON-04/08/2025
National Academic Depository (NAD)
2503. Dr. MALLU RAVI:
Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:
(a) the details of progress of the National Academic Depository pilot;
(b) the challenges being faced by the Government in implementation of the Scheme; and
(c) whether the Government has any plans to expand its scope and adoption?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
(DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR)
(a) to (c) The National Academic Depository (NAD) is a digital initiative of the Government of India. It aims
to provide a secure digital repository for educational documents including certificates, diplomas, degrees,
and marksheets. The recognised academic institutions, boards, assessment bodies etc. upload the
educational documents on the NAD portal. NAD facilitates easy access and retrieval of digital educational
documents for all stakeholders, while ensuring their authenticity and preservation in an efficient manner.
Digital India Corporation (DIC) under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology is the technical
partner for Ministry of Education for implementing NAD initiative. To increase the adoption of NAD, the
Ministry of Education in collaboration with DIC has taken several steps to promote the adoption of NAD
through extensive outreach; including nationwide workshops, regular training sessions, and targeted
awareness campaigns for the institutions that are uploading the educational documents.
In collaboration with DIC the Ministry of Education has also launched the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC)
scheme which builds on the digital infrastructure of NAD. ABC streamlines credit recognition,
accumulation, transfer, and redemption. Under the ABC scheme, a 12-digit unique identifier, Automated
Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) ID has been created for seamless interaction amongst
the stakeholders of the education ecosystem and to effectively map the lifelong journey of the learners.
As on date, 2564 degree/credit awarding institutions are registered on ABC portal, more than 5 Crore
APAAR Id have been created in higher education ecosystem along with 4.62 Crore credit records mapped
with these IDs on ABC portal. The NAD platform has recorded more than 103 crore digital educational
documents uploads so far.
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