25 crore APAAR IDs generated so far; IGNOU creates the most: Dharmendra Pradhan

By Vagisha and Shradha

NEW DELHI: 25 crore APAAR IDs have been generated so far by 15,000 academic institutions, said union education minister Dharmendra Pradesh while addressing a national conference on Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) today. More than 35 lakh academic records have been mapped with APAAR, he said.

The Ministry of Education launched the APAAR ID after recognizing the need for a unified student ID where all their academic records including degrees, certificates can be consolidated. The APAAR ID will be linked to the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) of a student.

Sharing information about generation of APAAR IDs by higher educational institutions, the education minister said that the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has generated the highest number of APAAR ID cards, which is 20.38 lakh, and has uploaded 32 lakh academic records. The university’s vice chancellor Nageshwar Rao said that in the upcoming convocation, students will be given their degrees on the same day through the National Academic Depository (NAD).

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Harsingh Gaur Vishwavidyalaya follows IGNOU and has uploaded 1,45,000 transcripts from 2009 to 2023. Yashwant Rao Chavan State Open University has created 6 lakh APAAR IDs and uploaded 20 lakh academic records on digilocker while Veer Narmada South Gujarat University has about 10 lakh APAAR IDs.

APAAR is a new digital public infrastructure, said Pradhan and added that out of the 53 DPI created in the world, 19 are from India.

Earlier too, there was a credit ecosystem, but there was no migration and integration. However, with the National Education Policy (NEP), all regulatory bodies have come together and found a solution for integration of credits, Pradhan said. “I want all institutes starting from 2024-25 to adopt the credit system in a phased manner but within a time bound manner,” Dharmendra Pradhan further said.