Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday said that it was high time the National Academic Depository (NAD) was rolled out and urged the stakeholders to target its rollout by next year.The NAD is an initiative of the HRD Ministry to maintain a national-level database of all academic qualifications from secondary school certificate to university and professional certificates. NAD will facilitate online verification and easy retrieval of academic records thereby removing the need to physically approach the educational institutions to obtain attestations of certificates. The database would also help deal with issues of forged certificates since it enables online verification.Inaugurating a conference for awareness on NAD here, Javadekar encouraged educational institutions to change the mindset by welcoming technology in the form of NAD and help make it a reality."Establishment of a National Academic Depository is a step towards the Digital India vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said. "The government of India is committed towards bringing administrative and academic reforms through the use of technology for delivery of efficient services to all stakeholders," Javadekar added. The NAD would facilitate round-the-clock online access to mark sheets, degrees etc. to educational institutions and employers with the consent of the candidates, he said.A live demo of uploading and lodging the documents of academic achievements on the NAD system was also made. This was followed by a question-answer session where queries raised by the participants were addressed.