The first to be available in the electronic format will be the academic awards of the Central Teachers’ Eligibility Test 2011 whose results the CBSE is slated to announce tomorrow. Also available in a dematerialised format on specially designed portals under the newly developed National Academic Depository (NAD) from tomorrow will be the CBSE’s Class XII Board Exam results, complete with the marksheets of students as issued by the Board.

These two awards have been dematerialised as part of the pilot project the HRD Ministry commissioned in January this year to determine how degrees and qualifications in electronic formats can be made available in India.

The exercise was undertaken ahead of the introduction in the Parliament of the National Academic Depository Bill which seeks to store academic degrees in a dematerialised format (like share certificates) and enable interested agencies to conduct online verification of the candidates to find out if the degree has actually been awarded by the authority being claimed, say the CBSE in this case or any other university. The Bill has been cleared by the Cabinet.

Anyone wanting to verify degrees online would, after three months, have to pay some money for the job.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal hailed the move and said anyone interested in verifying the authenticity of the two academic awards in question can now do so by going to the depository.

“They don’t have to go to the CBSE. Once the Bill is passed, all Central universities and state boards can become part of the system and the academic awards they offer can all be electronically stored and no one would be required to physically store the qualifications,” he said.