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The Indian government is planning to digitise academic records as part of a drive against fake degrees and institutions at a time when prominent public figures are being challenged to prove that they are entitled to the degrees and qualifications they claim to have. The National Academic Depository, which will start functioning this year, will include authenticated academic records from 2016 onwards with the government ensuring that all institutions, including school boards, issue digitised certificates with digital signatures from this academic year.

Universities across the country may now have to resort to cashless means like bank transfers, cheques and credit/debit cards while making use of periodic funds from University Grants Commission (UGC). The commission said the move was in order to bring in accountability, transparency and seamlessness in the process of transfer of grants. The commission said it has virtually made payments cashless and decreased the interface between stakeholders and employees of the organisation.

The Sindh education department has decided to recover the funds disbursed in salaries to ghost teachers using its biometric attendance system. Sindh education secretary boasted that Sindh is the only province in the country to have biometric attendance in the education department.

The government has appointed a task force to create a national database of academic qualifications to ensure confidentiality, authenticity, online verification and easy retrieval of degrees.