HRD Ministry declares DigiLocker as national academic depository

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has designated DigiLocker as the sole National Academic Depository (NAD). The ministry has directed the University Grants Commission to implement NAD as a permanent scheme within DigiLocker.

NAD will be implemented as a permanent scheme without the levy of any user charges by DigiLocker through the Ministry of Electronics and IT, said the HRD ministry in a release.

UGC has also been asked to ensure the transfer of academic awards, creation of student accounts and procedure of verification with DigiLocker.

The fresh notification will pave the way for nationwide digitization of academic awards, certificates and mark sheets via DigiLocker for all institutions including central, state snd private universities, central higher education institutions and school boards under the ministry.

DigiLocker is primarily a cloud-based safe, which allows users to store electronic versions of important documents like Aadhaar card, birth certificates, voters ID cards, PAN cards, driving license, property documents and provides access to these on the go.

In the last five years, it has witnessed significant tractions in terms of the number of users and use cases. Of late, insurance companies are also asking policyholders to use DigiLocker to save essential documents.

In January, the Reserve Bank of India had officially granted recognition to the DigiLocker platform for Know Your Customer process. In February this year, it had claimed 43 crore policy documents stored on its app while eight leading insurance companies have integrated with the platform.

Till February 2020, DigiLocker claims to have more than 35 million registered users on its platform. In 2019, It had seen a 77% increase in registered users.