HRD Ministry working towards digital degrees, certificates

NEW DELHI, Sept 9:
The HRD ministry is working to ensure that degrees and certificates are given to students in digital format from the 2017 academic session onwards.
“There is a need to take pledge and that pledge is by 2017, all degrees and board certificates, everything will go in digital format,” HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said.
He was speaking at the national conference for awareness on National Academic Depository here.
Javadekar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched Digital India campaign and wants to make the whole apparatus as digital.
He said apart from giving away certificates in digital format, every student will also get an opportunity to upload their other certificates and awards. “Every student will also get an opportunity to put other awards which he has won earlier on it after proper authentication. So his profile is available in one click,” Javadekar said. According to reports, the HRD ministry has fast-tracked work on setting up a virtual database under which all academic records will be available in digital format, to curb the menace of fake educational degrees and marksheets. The creation of a digital database will benefit recruiters who want to get the credentials of applicants and will also eliminate the need to physically approach the university. Noting that there is a need to prepare the mindset to change, Javadekar said that the problem today was that although change is taking place at a fast pace in the world, minds are not changing with that pace. (PTI)