President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu launched blockchain-secured graduation degrees for the 1st time in Haryana at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, on November 29, 2022 coinciding with the 18th convocation ceremony held for awarding degrees to two consecutive batches of 2020 and 2021 whose convocation ceremony was deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Manohar Lal, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Haryana, and Bandaru Dattatraya, Governor of Haryana were present.
The technology for awarding blockchain-secured certificates for the students has been provided by CertOnce, a global leader in offering blockchain-based solutions and responsible for implementing India’s 1st ever blockchain secured degree solution at MIT WPU, Pune.
The founders of CertOnce- Rajesh Ranjan & Pawan Khurana also happen to be an alumnus of NIT Kurukshetra and said that it was “a proud moment” to assist their alma mater in implementing the technology. Pawan Khurana, Co-founder & COO, said, “We are extremely proud to bring this disruptive technology to India in March 2021, with MIT World Peace University, Pune becoming the 1st ever Indian university to implement blockchain secured certificates for their students. In fact, they were so happy with the solution that they requested CertOnce to help issue such blockchain-secured certificates for all their former students as well.”
At the launch, the digital copies of the certificates were sent to all the students via email, published on the blockchain, and instantly verifiable on the NIT Kurukshetra website.“The entire process is implemented using the same open standards platform that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Boston uses,” added Mr. Khurana. The technology is considered the worldwide standard for verifiable credentials by w3g.org.
The increasing adoption of blockchain technology for academic credentials is also in line with the New Education Policy (NEP) and the Digital India initiative.
