Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

An institution should be registered by any authorized representative of the institute. He/She must sign up through DigiLocker and provide basic information related to the Institution, Account Owner and Authorised Person. Please read the Terms and Conditions carefully and then click on “I Agree” to complete the registration. Details provided will be verified by the NAD and UGC team. Upon successful verification, the Institution’s account gets activated.

Yes, an institution must register on the NAD portal in order to use NAD services.

Creation of DigiLocker account is mandatory to operate NAD. The Academic Institution must create a NAD Portal account with NAD Nodal officer’s (Account Owner) mobile number/ Aadhaar number associated with DigiLocker.

This phone number or Aadhaar number is only required to verify the identity of the person who registers the AI on its behalf. The Account Owner/ Nodal Officer represents the institution and will be the point of contact for DigiLocker-NAD related matters.

Certificates/marksheets issued on DigiLocker NAD have standard formats for all institutions across the nation, which may differ from the physical awards as provided by AIs. According to the Information Technology Act of 2000, these certificates/documents are deemed to be at par with original physical documents.

    Accessibility – Digital documents can be accessed online anywhere. It can be sent by the user for verification. The user can also access the DigiLocker app to get all the services on the smartphone itself.

    Authenticity - Documents are issued directly by various government departments and institutions and are therefore authentic. Users cannot make changes to such documents. Therefore, it is easier for agencies to do the e-KYC process.

    Paperless processing - Since original documents can now be shared online, the user does not need to install hard copies of documents. Therefore paper delays are greatly reduced greatly improving the overall processing time

Students do not need to register for the NAD portal separately. Students can access their digital academic certificates issued on NAD by using DigiLocker application. To register for DigiLocker, please visit https://digilocker.gov.in and enter your Aadhaar ID or mobile number.

In order to access their educational rewards, students are advised to register with DigiLocker. If you do not have Aadhaar or your current mobile number is not linked to your Aadhaar number, please visit an Aadhaar enrolment centre. If you are unable to enroll for Aadhaar or change your mobile number, you can still create a DigiLocker account with your mobile number.

There is no NAD Id for DigiLocker supported NAD services. You only need a DigiLocker account to get started.

platform and the publication of the same is complete, you will be able to discover your university/college. DigiLocker is constantly expanding its ecosystem to include Central/State/Private academic institutions.

Click on the ‘Browse Documents’ section on the left menu-> Go to the ‘Education’ category Find your Institution logo

Please follow the steps outlined below to gain access to your educational awards:
  • Login to your DigiLocker account
  • Click on ‘Browse Documents’ section on the left menu-> Go to ‘Education’ category
  • Find your Institution logo and click on it -> Select the Document Type
  • Enter the requisite details (e.g., Roll number, Registration number, Name and Year of examination) and provide your consent by checking the box
  • Click on ‘Get Document’ tab. Your academic award will now be accessible for download in your 'Issued Documents' section

We use a combination of the registration number, the candidate's name, DOB, mobile number, aadhar number and the AI's name to map the students' information. If a DigiLocker account cannot be found using either of these combinations, one is created and matched to the academic award using this information.

Your academic institution is in charge of ensuring the accuracy of your records. The academic award database is protected by DigiLocker NAD, which ensures its authenticity, integrity, and privacy.

DigiLocker allows you to effortlessly access and share your digital educational awards. You can, however, get the PDF version of your digital certificates.

Yes, under the IT Act of 2000, these certificates/documents are recognised to be equivalent to actual physical documents.

The DigiLocker NAD framework protects data privacy. Only you have access to your certificates. However, Verifying Partners (employers, banks, other academic institutions, and so on) can only view your certificate record with your permission and authorization.

If an employer demands verification of your certificate record, DigiLocker NAD will notify you through email or SMS using your registered information.

If you do not approve or reject a request within a reasonable amount of time, the request is considered ineffective.

Yes, you have the authority to approve or deny a request for verification of any document/certificate.

Yes, it is correct.

Only AI will be able to upload and lodge awards in DigiLocker NAD, hence students will be unable to do so. The student can only request that an existing award be retrieved and shared with a verifier through DigiLocker NAD.

An institution should be registered by any authorized representative of the institute. He/She must sign up through DigiLocker and provide basic information related to the Institution, Account Owner and Authorised Person. Please read the Terms and Conditions carefully and then click on “I Agree” to complete the registration. Details provided will be verified by the NAD and UGC team. Upon successful verification, the Institution’s account gets activated.

Yes, an institution must register on the NAD portal in order to use NAD services.

Creation of DigiLocker account is mandatory to operate NAD. The Academic Institution must create a NAD Portal account with NAD Nodal officer’s (Account Owner) mobile number/ Aadhaar number associated with DigiLocker.

This phone number or Aadhaar number is only required to verify the identity of the person who registers the AI on its behalf. The Account Owner/ Nodal Officer represents the institution and will be the point of contact for DigiLocker-NAD related matters.

We compiled this list with the help of educational regulators such as the UGC and AICTE. You will be able to discover your institution on the list and register whenever we receive it from them. In case it occurs that your institution is already registered with the competent regulatory authority & still not appearing in the drop-down menu. Kindly get in touch with NAD support at nad[do]support[at]digitalindia[dot]gov[dot]in

We compiled this list with the help of educational regulators such as the UGC and AICTE. If your institute name is registered incorrectly with them. We recommend that you get it rectified with the respective regulator first & then similar corrections can be made in Digilocker NAD

The account owner is some decision-making authority within the institution. This person represents the AI as a Nodal Officer and will be the point of contact for DigiLocker-NAD related matters.

Send your request to nad[dot]support[at]digitalindia[dot]gov[dot]in, stating your current credentials as well as the details you desire to update, along with a valid justification for doing so. We shall also require an authorized letter from a competent authority of the institute for the same.

The authorized person is the one who operates the NAD account of the Academic Institution AI and performs responsibilities such as uploading and publishing the award data.

Log into your account- Go to the Settings-> General-> Click on Authorized Person Details tab-> Update the details.

Academic Institutions are responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of academic records as well as the students' identities. As a result, you must ensure that academic records are thoroughly validated and that the records are processed in DigiLocker NAD by authorised personnel.
It is recommended that a Nodal NAD Cell be established in all AIs in order to develop an institutional framework for operating NAD services and to ensure that diverse NAD functions are efficiently implemented.

You must input the Aadhaar / DigiLocker ID of the student while lodging the records in DigiLocker NAD so that the certificates are mapped directly to the students' awards and safely made available to them.

A URI is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) generated by the Institutions and required for all e-documents in the DigiLocker NAD system. This unique URI can be resolved to a full URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to access the actual document in its appropriate repository.

Educational institutions must provide awards data in a standard CSV sip file and select appropriate digital certificate templates for each type of certificate to publish the same. NAD does not import data in any other way.

The Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission have already informed previous NAD service partners NSDL and CVL that the data will be transferred to DigiLocker NAD. Certificates/documents can be made available to students once the data has been transferred. However, we recommend that the institutions themselves provide the data in CSV format.

Ministry of Education and UGC have written to NDML/CVL to request data transfer, but we recommend that as the data owner, you demand your data back and submit it to DigiLocker NAD so that it can be made available to your students/candidates. Automatic migration is not feasible.

Yes, you can upload legacy awards records.

The DigiLocker repository was built so that any agency, including AIs, can upload digitised data in a variety of formats, including database dumps, bulk files (Excel sheet or CSV), and APIs. To be stored in the DigiLocker NAD repository, an AI must ensure that their academic awards data is available in one of the digital forms listed above. Digitization of legacy data will be the sole responsibility of the AI.

TNo, scanned images are not supported by DigiLocker NAD, hence scanned copies/PDF files of academic records cannot be uploaded. One of the primary objectives of NAD is to eliminate delays in the verification of academic records caused by manual verification. Therefore, the academic records on NAD must be available in machine readable format. AIs can upload only digitized academic records on NAD as prescribed. If you have your academic records in scanned/ PDF from, you must convert them to standard CSV format and submit to DigiLocker NAD

Different types of sample CSV formats are available under Resource section of the portal.

Different types of sample CSV formats are available under Resource section of the portal.

The CSV columns are divided into 2 categories: mandatory and optional. Please refer to Guideline Documents in the Resource section for further information.

Yes, you can log into your account-> Go to the Settings-> Click on Templates tab-> From there, you can see various standard templates to fit most of the information from your physical awards.

The digital academic awards do not restrict the AIs to issue physical awards in their respective traditional formats; hence, you may continue to give your students certificates in your approved format. The digital copies of those certificates have a standard template as given on the website.

The procedure for uploading such data is similar to that of regular courses.

You can re-upload the record with the status "M" in the MARKS REC STATUS column, which stands for modification (Details given in the guideline document).

Yes, in case of bulk data.

As per the NAD objective and clear instruction by Ministry of Education and UGC, all the academic certificates should be lodged into DigiLocker NAD. You can begin with consolidated marks-sheets and work your way up to semester-by-semester marks sheets.

No, Academic Institutions (AIs) can neither modify these templates nor add their own certificate designs. The awards and certificates given by Academic Institutes can only be published in a pre-defined template on DigiLocker NAD. DigiLocker NAD is in the process of standardising certificate templates across the country in order to speed up the publication of digital academic awards. Furthermore, rather than focusing on the designs of the certificates, we have focused on their security aspects.

No, DigiLocker NAD is free of cost.

No.

We use a combination of the registration number, the candidate's name, and the AI's name to map the students' information.

Foreign/NRI students can access digital certificates through DigiLocker if they have an Indian mobile number or Aadhaar. In the event that they do not have these, they can either apply to DigiLocker Support with proper authenticated documents to receive their certificate via mail, or they can approach their AIs, who can then verify the authenticity of such students and request that DigiLocker provide them with the certificates.

Students must only have their DigiLocker account. The NAD Id that was previously produced is no longer required. If their certificates/digital records are made available on NAD, students will be able to access them using their DigiLocker accounts.

No.

No, consent will be given solely by the student. However, in circumstances where verification is necessary by statutory bodies/constitutional bodies/investigating authorities throughout the course of any enquiry/investigation, the student's consent for sharing of academic awards/data is not required.

Yes.

You can submit verifier registration using the link https://partners.digitallocker.gov.in/public/register/orgreg/signup

Organizations that want to use this interface to verify students' academic records must apply online at https://partners.digitallocker.gov.in/public/register/orgreg/signup. After verification, the application will be authorised. By logging onto the account at https://partners.digitallocker.gov.in, the verifier organisation can obtain the necessary credentials to use the API.

After the student's consent is received, the certificate will be made available to you for verification within 24 hours.

No, the verification is strictly subject to the consent of students.

The request is dropped if the student does not give approval within a reasonable amount of time. If you want to verify the award, you'll have to submit a new request.

generates electronic consent; the user/student (whose data is being verified) approves it with Aadhaar or any other OTP based authentication or uses eSign facility; and verifier submits it to the verification system.
In offline method, the verifier collects the user’s consent on a paper form; includes an electronic consent in the verification request; digitally signs the request with verifier’s own digital signature and sends it to the verification system. The verification system will maintain a log of all successful/unsuccessful data access attempts and will notify the user using the contact information if available.

Kindly refer to the guideline document provided under the Resources section for description of CSV headers.

Academic course id can be the same as course name similarly in absence of registration number it can be same as roll no.

Kindly mail us at nad[dot]support[at]digitalindia[dot]gov[dot]in to make them optional.

The National Academic Depository (NAD) is a 24X7 online repository of all academic awards such as certificates, diplomas, degrees, mark sheets, etc. issued by Academic Institutions, such as universities, colleges, research institutes, training academies and secondary education boards and stored in a digital format. DigiLocker NAD not only allows easy access to and retrieval of academic awards but also validates and guarantees their authenticity and safe storage.

  1. Students, scholars & other academic award recipients.
  2. Academic Institutions/ Boards / Eligibility Assessment Bodies.
  3. Verifying Entities i.e. banks, employer companies (domestic & overseas), Government entities.

DigiLocker provides a secure dedicated repository service to Academic Institutions (AIs) to host their awards data and is available at https://nad.digilocker.gov.in. The NAD portal makes uploading and publishing academic records from this repository simple and intuitive. NAD offers a variety of services, including issuing, accessing, verifying, and validating academic awards in digital format.

All sorts of academic awards, such as degree, diplomas, and certificates, as well as mark sheets and evaluation reports, may be issued in the repository.

Certificates/marksheets issued on DigiLocker NAD have standard formats for all institutions across the nation, which may differ from the physical awards as provided by AIs. According to the Information Technology Act of 2000, these certificates/documents are deemed to be at par with original physical documents.

    Accessibility – Digital documents can be accessed online anywhere. It can be sent by the user for verification. The user can also access the DigiLocker app to get all the services on the smartphone itself.

    Authenticity - Documents are issued directly by various government departments and institutions and are therefore authentic. Users cannot make changes to such documents. Therefore, it is easier for agencies to do the e-KYC process.

    Paperless processing - Since original documents can now be shared online, the user does not need to install hard copies of documents. Therefore paper delays are greatly reduced greatly improving the overall processing time

Students do not need to register for the NAD portal separately. Students can access their digital academic certificates issued on NAD by using DigiLocker application. To register for DigiLocker, please visit https://digilocker.gov.in and enter your Aadhaar ID or mobile number.

There is no NAD Id for DigiLocker supported NAD services. You only need a DigiLocker account to get started.

Once the concerned Institute provides the data of academic certificates on the DigiLocker-NAD platform and the publication of the same is complete, you will be able to discover your university/college. DigiLocker is constantly expanding its ecosystem to include Central/State/Private academic institutions.

You can Login to your DigiLocker account Click on the ‘Browse Documents’ section on the left menu-> Go to the ‘Education’ category Find your Institution logo

Please follow the steps outlined below to gain access to your educational awards:
  • Login to your DigiLocker account
  • Click on ‘Browse Documents’ section on the left menu-> Go to ‘Education’ category
  • Find your Institution logo and click on it -> Select the Document Type
  • Enter the requisite details (e.g., Roll number, Registration number, Name and Year of examination) and provide your consent by checking the box
  • Click on ‘Get Document’ tab. Your academic award will now be accessible for download in your 'Issued Documents' section

We use a combination of the registration number, the candidate's name, DOB, mobile number, aadhar number and the AI's name to map the students' information. If a DigiLocker account cannot be found using either of these combinations, one is created and matched to the academic award using this information.

Your academic institution is in charge of ensuring the accuracy of your records. The academic award database is protected by DigiLocker NAD, which ensures its authenticity, integrity, and privacy.

DigiLocker allows you to effortlessly access and share your digital educational awards. You can, however, get the PDF version of your digital certificates.

Yes, under the IT Act of 2000, these certificates/documents are recognised to be equivalent to actual physical documents.

The DigiLocker NAD framework protects data privacy. Only you have access to your certificates. However, Verifying Partners (employers, banks, other academic institutions, and so on) can only view your certificate record with your permission and authorization.

If an employer demands verification of your certificate record, DigiLocker NAD will notify you through email or SMS using your registered information.

If you do not approve or reject a request within a reasonable amount of time, the request is considered ineffective.

Yes, you have the authority to approve or deny a request for verification of any document/certificate.

Yes, it is correct.

Only AI will be able to upload and lodge awards in DigiLocker NAD, hence students will be unable to do so. The student can only request that an existing award be retrieved and shared with a verifier through DigiLocker NAD.

An institution should be registered by any authorized representative of the institute. He/She must sign up through DigiLocker and provide basic information related to the Institution, Account Owner and Authorised Person. Please read the Terms and Conditions carefully and then click on “I Agree” to complete the registration. Details provided will be verified by the NAD and UGC team. Upon successful verification, the Institution’s account gets activated.

Yes, an institution must register on the NAD portal in order to use NAD services.

Creation of DigiLocker account is mandatory to operate NAD. The Academic Institution must create a NAD Portal account with NAD Nodal officer’s (Account Owner) mobile number/ Aadhaar number associated with DigiLocker.

This phone number or Aadhaar number is only required to verify the identity of the person who registers the AI on its behalf. The Account Owner/ Nodal Officer represents the institution and will be the point of contact for DigiLocker-NAD related matters.

We compiled this list with the help of educational regulators s the UGC and AICTE. You will be able to discover your institution on the list and register whenever we receive it from them. In case it occurs that your institution is already registered with the competent regulatory authority & still not appearing in the drop-down menu. Kindly get in touch with NAD support at nad[dot]support[at]digitalindia[dot]gov[dot]in

The account owner is some decision-making authority within the institution. This person represents the AI as a Nodal Officer and will be the point of contact for DigiLocker-NAD related matters.

Send your request to nad[dot]support[at]digitalindia[dot]gov[dot]in, stating your current credentials as well as the details you desire to update, along with a valid justification for doing so.We shall also require an authorized letter from a competent authority of the institute for the same.

The authorized person is the one who operates the NAD account of the Academic Institution AI and performs responsibilities such as uploading and publishing the award data.

Log into your account- Go to the Settings-> General-> Click on Authorized Person Details tab-> Update the details.

Academic Institutions are responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of academic records as well as the students' identities. As a result, you must ensure that academic records are thoroughly validated and that the records are processed in DigiLocker NAD by authorised personnel. It is recommended that a Nodal NAD Cell be established in all AIs in order to develop an institutional framework for operating NAD services and to ensure that diverse NAD functions are efficiently implemented.

You must seed the Aadhaar / DigiLocker ID of the student while lodging the records in DigiLocker NAD so that the certificates are mapped directly to the students' awards and safely made available to them.

A URI is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) generated by the Institutions and required for all e-documents in the DigiLocker NAD system. This unique URI can be resolved to a full URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to access the actual document in its appropriate repository.

Educational institutions must provide awards data in a standard CSV zip file and select appropriate digital certificate templates for each type of certificate to publish the same. NAD does not import data in any other way.

The Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission have already informed previous NAD service partners NSDL and CVL that the data will be transferred to DigiLocker NAD. Certificates/documents can be made available to students once the data has been transferred. However, we recommend that the institutions themselves provide the data in CSV format.

Ministry of Education and UGC have written to NDML/CVL to request data transfer, but we recommend that as the data owner, you demand your data back and submit it to DigiLocker NAD so that it can be made available to your students/candidates. Automatic migration is not feasible.

Yes, you can upload legacy awards records.

The DigiLocker repository was built so that any agency, including AIs, can upload digitised data in a variety of formats, including database dumps, bulk files (Excel sheet or CSV), and APIs. To be stored in the DigiLocker NAD repository, an AI must ensure that their academic awards data is available in one of the digital forms listed above. Digitization of legacy data will be the sole responsibility of the AI.

No, scanned images are not supported by DigiLocker NAD, hence scanned copies/PDF files of academic records cannot be uploaded. One of the primary objectives of NAD is to eliminate delays in the verification of academic records caused by manual verification. Therefore, the academic records on NAD must be available in machine readable format. AIs can upload only digitized academic records on NAD as prescribed. If you have your academic records in scanned/ PDF from, you must convert them to standard CSV format and submit to DigiLocker NAD.

No, DigiLocker NAD is free of cost.

No.

We use a combination of the registration number, the candidate's name, and the AI's name to map the students' information.

Foreign/NRI students can access digital certificates through DigiLocker if they have an Indian mobile number or Aadhaar. In the event that they do not have these, they can either apply to DigiLocker Support with proper authenticated documents to receive their certificate via mail, or they can approach their AIs, who can then verify the authenticity of such students and request that DigiLocker provide them with the certificates.

Students must only have their DigiLocker account. The NAD Id that was previously produced is no longer required. If their certificates/digital records are made available on NAD, students will be able to access them using their DigiLocker accounts.

No.

No, consent will be given solely by the student. However, in circumstances where verification is necessary by statutory bodies/constitutional bodies/investigating authorities throughout the course of any enquiry/investigation, the student's consent for sharing of academic awards/data is not required.

Yes.

You can submit verifier registration using the link

Organizations that want to use this interface to verify students' academic records must apply online at https://partners.digitallocker.gov.in/public/register/orgreg/signup . After verification, the application will be authorised. By logging onto the account at https://partners.digitallocker.gov.in, the verifier organisation can obtain the necessary credentials to use the API.

After the student's consent is received, the certificate will be made available to you for verification within 24 hours.

No, the verification is strictly subject to the consent of students.

The request is dropped if the student does not give approval within a reasonable amount of time. If you want to verify the award, you'll have to submit a new request.

Currently the consent can be taken either in online or offline manner. In online method, the verifier generates electronic consent; the user/student (whose data is being verified) approves it with Aadhaar or any other OTP based authentication or uses eSign facility; and verifier submits it to the verification system.
In offline method, the verifier collects the user’s consent on a paper form; includes an electronic consent in the verification request; digitally signs the request with verifier’s own digital signature and sends it to the verification system. The verification system will maintain a log of all successful/unsuccessful data access attempts and will notify the user using the contact information if available.

Different types of sample CSV formats are available under Resource section of the portal.

The CSV columns are divided into 2 categories: mandatory and optional. Please refer to Guideline Documents in the Resource section for further information.

Kindly refer to the guideline document provided under the Resources section for description of CSV headers.

Academic course id can be the same as course name similarly in absence of registration number it can be same as roll no.

Kindly mail us at nad[dot]support[at]digitalindia[dot]gov[dot]in to make them optional.

Yes, you can log into your account-> Go to the Settings-> Click on Templates tab-> From there, you can see various standard templates to fit most of the information from your physical awards.

Yes, you can log into your account-> Go to the Settings-> Click on Templates tab-> From there, you can see various standard templates to fit most of the information from your physical awardsThe digital academic awards do not restrict the AIs to issue physical awards in their respective traditional formats; hence, you may continue to give your students certificates in your approved format. The digital copies of those certificates have a standard template as given on the website..

The procedure for uploading such data is similar to that of regular courses.

You can re-upload the record with the status "M" in the MARKS REC STATUS column, which stands for modification (Details given in the guideline document).

Yes, in case of bulk data.

As per the NAD objective and clear instruction by Ministry of Education and UGC, all the academic certificates should be lodged into DigiLocker NAD. You can begin with consolidated marks-sheets and work your way up to semester-by-semester marks sheets.

No, Academic Institutions (AIs) can neither modify these templates nor add their own certificate designs. The awards and certificates given by Academic Institutes can only be published in a pre-defined template on DigiLocker NAD. DigiLocker NAD is in the process of standardising certificate templates across the country in order to speed up the publication of digital academic awards. Furthermore, rather than focusing on the designs of the certificates, we have focused on their security aspects.