The Lok Sabha today passed the National Academic Depository Bill 2011 by voice vote amidst din. The Bill seeks to create a national database of academic qualifications in electronic or DMAT format, which will authenticate and reissue certificates.

The database will help the administration effectively deal with forged certificates and fake degree rackets. It will also enable online verification and easy retrieval of particulars of academic qualifications. Students will also be benefitted from the new provision as they need not worry about spoilage of certificates over time and getting their certificates attested.

The database will be established in an electronic format by an identified registered depository, with all institutes, including school boards, the Indian Institutes of Technology, the National Institutes of Technology and polytechnics from different States having linkages to the depository.