We use demat account to store shares, mutual funds, ETFs, and other securities in electronic form. If you have any physical share certificates, you can convert them into a dematerialised form easily if you have a demat account. However, the government of India is all set to provide demat accounts to students. They can use it to hold educational certificates. This idea can soon be a reality as NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) is planning to introduce demat accounts. It can use to store educational certificates in the near future.
Once such demat accounts are available, you no longer have to worry about the safety of your academic credentials. You can just store them in your demat account and produce them whenever you attend a job interview. As demat accounts initially eliminated the risk of storing financial securities in paper form. The educational demat account will eliminate the chances of theft, damage, or forgery of education certificates.
If you are still unaware about
what is a demat account, think of it as something similar to a bank account. Instead of holding your cash and deposits, the demat account holds your market linked investments. These may be shares, bonds, government securities, and more.
What is NAD (National Academic Depository)? What is its initiative regarding educational certificates?
Indian government launches the depository that is NAD (National Academic Depository). As NSDL and CDSL as repositories for market-linked securities, NAD will be the depository for the educational certificates. The educational certificates of the students will be accessible through NAD whenever a government department, educational institute/college/university, or company requires it to verify their authenticity.
The government has taken this initiative to identify the fake educational certificates and degrees that are used to secure jobs or get admission to higher studies. Apart from the educational certificates and degrees, NAD will also be the repository for the academic awards and recognitions upon the request of the students.
NSDL Database Management Limited i.e. NDML and CDSL Ventures CVL will be responsible for operationalizing NAD. Both CVL and NDML are the subsidiaries of these depositories which are registered under SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) Act, 1992.
Benefits of Availing of A Demat Account For Educational Certificates
Here are some key benefits of
online demat account opening for holding educational certificates:
No need to carry physical documents
The marksheets and passing certificates of 10th, 12th, diploma, and graduate degrees along with several academic accolades and accomplishments are usually stored in a big folder or file.
You need to carry these documents every time you apply for a job or an educational course. With the introduction of educational demat accounts, you need not carry these certificates physically.
Speeds up the admission process
As educational credentials and certificates will be digitised through NAD, the universities and colleges will be able to access your academic certificates and credentials quickly. This will not only streamline the admission process but will also make it a lot quicker.
Recruiters will be able to verify a candidate’s history and profile easily by accessing your documents through NAD.
Convenient for educational institutions
Schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions need to maintain the academic records of each and every student right from their enrollment date. Though most institutions have digitised these records, there is still a lot of data to be managed and secured. With the introduction of NAD, they will no longer have to worry about maintaining the record of educational certificates. This will reduce some of their administrative burden.
Check on fraudulent activities
We often hear about miscreants using fake degrees to get jobs or secure admission to elite courses and degrees. It is not possible to keep a check on these fraudulent activities because there is no way to cross-check the authenticity of the submitted documents.
To deter these malpractices, recruiters and educational institutes can ask their students to register on NAD and upload their educational certificates there.
Makes certificate duplication process simpler
In cases where the educational certificates and degrees of students get lost, misplaced, damaged, or stolen, they need to request a duplicate certificate from their respective college or university.
It is a time-consuming process as the students need to go through several processes to obtain duplicate certificates. Once the original educational certificates get registered on NAD, the duplication process will be a lot easier and quicker.
Easy access to students
Once their educational credentials are verified by NAD, the students will be allowed to hold them in their demat account. After that, they can access their academic degrees and certificates by just logging into their computer or smartphone.
The academic data available on NAD will be available in a non-redundant and integrated form.
