AURANGABAD: The Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education ( MSBTE ) has made it mandatory for all diploma students to register for an account on National Academic Depository ( NAD ).NAD is an online platform for students, academic institutions and employers to access, store, and verify academic records. The platform was developed by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD). It was launched on July 9 last year.The directive is a first-of-its-kind initiative by any apex body in the education sector. All affiliated polytechnics in the state have been asked to show necessary compliance before in this regard before October 10, the latest communication issued for principals stated.The move to prevail over polytechnics to open NAD accounts for students has been welcomed by different stakeholders with many believing that such compulsion would only ensure the best use of the platform.NAD aims to bring in a wide range of benefits in the form of enhanced transparency, reduction in costs, better services standards, enabling online access, facilitate validation and retrieval, and mitigating reputation risk by eliminating fake or forged certificates, MSBTE secretary V R Jadhav stated in a letter issued to principals.Jadhav has urged the principals of various colleges to take the necessary steps. The secretary further made it clear that it is mandatory for every student to register on the website and get a NAD-ID.Students without an Aadhaar number can also register for an NAD account. The portal and depository websites will maintain a list of all academic institutions participating in NAD. However, the NAD framework respects the privacy of the data. Certificates would be accessible for verification by others users only after consent and authorization from the respective candidate.The registrations will be free for academic institutions until September 30, 2019.Students can register for free until the age of 27. Any student above 27, will be charged an annual usage fee for viewing of certificates.“A NAD account would be an added benefit for several students. In the age of globalisation, educational and employment opportunities have no boundaries. Having academic certificates stored in a digital repository created by the central government will always be handy for the students,” the principal of MIT polytechnic Sunil Deshmukh said.“All polytechnic must wholeheartedly respond to the appeal from MSBTE and the students must register for an account in NAD,” Deshmukh added.

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