National Academic Depository (NAD): India’s Digital Degree Vault

India’s education system produces millions of degrees, diplomas, and mark sheets every year. One digital system now stores them all, permanently.

MCQ Questions

IndSoc0047

14.71L Schools

India’s academic record-keeping system, as of 2024-25 — now being brought onto one digital depository.

Universities

1,420

Central, state, private, and deemed universities, all eligible to register with NAD

Colleges

53,583

Affiliated colleges generating degrees, diplomas, and mark sheets each year

Standalone Institutions

16,795

Independent institutions outside the university system

R&D Institutes

280

Research institutions also within NAD’s registration scope

The ecosystem: NAD operates through DigiLocker (launched 2015), alongside two sibling systems — APAAR (a permanent academic ID) and the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). Together, the three form one unified digital academic-records system.

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Must Know

• The National Academic Depository (NAD) is a nationwide framework for storing, verifying, and issuing academic awards digitally.
• Since 2020, the NAD ecosystem has run through DigiLocker, the digital document platform launched on 1 July 2015 under Digital India.
• It lets students access degrees, diplomas, and mark sheets anytime, without needing physical copies from their institutions.
• The Ministry of Education is NAD’s parent ministry. It has designated the University Grants Commission (UGC) as the nodal agency implementing NAD through DigiLocker.
• Digital records issued through NAD carry the same legal status as physical documents, under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• NAD registers central, state, private, and deemed universities, school boards like CBSE, and other higher education institutions.

Good to Know

• NAD is one of three linked digital-records systems built on the same DigiLocker foundation. The other two are the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) and the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR).
• NAD is also integrated with the government’s e-Sanad service, which handles electronic verification, attestation, and apostille of documents for Indians seeking education or work abroad.
• Sharing is consent-based. A student must actively approve before an employer, institution, or government body can view their records.
• The system runs on the Digital Locker Rules, 2016, and the National e-Authentication Framework (NeAF), which together govern secure identity verification and consent.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Since 2020, the National Academic Depository (NAD) ecosystem has run through which digital platform, launched on 1 July 2015?

DigiLocker

MyGov

UMANG

e-Sanad

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Great to Know

• NAD, ABC, and APAAR are easy to confuse, since all three sit on the same DigiLocker foundation. NAD stores and verifies records, ABC manages credit accumulation for flexible learning paths, and APAAR gives each student a permanent academic ID. See National Education Policy 2020 elsewhere on this site for how ABC and APAAR fit into NEP 2020‘s broader reforms.
• NAD directly supports NEP 2020 features like Multiple Entry-Multiple Exit and the National Credit Framework, which only work if a student’s past learning is verifiable wherever they resume it.
• Replacing paper credentials with verified digital ones doesn’t just add convenience. It closes a specific fraud risk: forged degrees and mark sheets that manual, paper-based verification could never fully catch.