New Delhi: The state governments on Saturday
endorsed the HRD Ministry's ambitious plan to set up an
electronic database of all academic certificates issued by
universities and central and state school boards.
At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of
Education (CABE), state education ministers gave their go
ahead for setting up the National Academic Depository which
will be an electronic database of all academic degrees and
certificates.
The Ministry has already drafted National Academic
Depository (NAD) Bill 2010 for the purpose. The government
feels NAD will eliminating scope of fake certification.
"CABE considered the proposal on the proposed National
Academic Depository Bill, 2010 for creating and maintaining a
national electronic database of academic records and awards at
no cost to Central or State Government," HRD Minister Kapil
Sibal told reporters.
The NAD will adopt adequate system of safeguards for
storage, access and retrieval of records while ensuring its
confidentiality, fidelity and authenticity. It provides for Rs
10 crore penalty or 10-year jail term in case of wrong
endorsement by officials of the databank.
Under this initiative, the school boards, universities
and certificate issuing institutions can have direct linkages
to the depository. The certificates could be stored in a DMAT
format.
Any person, company or institution requiring a copy of
an academic award shall have the facility of online access or
may obtain physical copy of the authenticated academic award
from the NAD.
The draft law says that if any academic institution
fails to discharge its duty or contravenes the provisions of
the act will be liable for penalty up to Rs five lakh.
For offences like hacking into the national database,
the offenders will be punishable under the provisions of the
IT Act, 2000.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 21:50