What Is NSR (National Skills Registry)

NSR is an initiative taken by NASSCOM. NASSCOM is the trade association of all the IT / ITeS / BPO companies in India. NASSCOM wants to promote the interests of IT & ITeS industry and help it grow. NASSCOM has taken up a significant initiative called "Trusted Sourcing". This initiative aims to develop and project the industry as a Safe and Trusted destination for sourcing, development, outsourcing and process work so that overseas clients develop confidence with the safety of our industry and assign more work.

One of the important attributes of the Trust and Safety environment is robust and credible information about industry employees. This is not available today, every company needs to collect information about employees, use its practices to get such information verified and than present to clients. This process is both costly and inefficient and also does not reflect upon trust environment in good light.

NASSCOM, at the request of its member companies, has taken up the initiative to develop a robust information infrastructure about all present and prospective employees of the industry called "National Skills Registry (NSR)". NSR facilitates development of Fact Sheet of Credible, Permanent and Accessible information about each registered person. This information can be accessed and used by the industry and its clients with the authorization of such registered person.

How does NSR work?

NSR is a progressive and positive initiative. It seeks to connect the professionals working or hoping to work for the industry with the companies who need information about professionals for reference, hiring, client assignments etc and background checkers who verify the information. It provides secure industry profile to professionals and credible quick reference to the participating companies. It works on the following principles.

Every person working or aspiring to work for IT / ITeS industry has a right to register him / her and create profile on this industry reference system.

Each person should register his or her correct and factual details relating to qualifications, experience and demographic information on the system. NSR does not collect information about employees / candidates from any source only the person can enter his / her information. So the person decides how to represent him / her to the industry.

Each person can create only one profile on NSR thereby making identity secure and credible. Person's Identity and Uniqueness is established during the registration process. The profile and information becomes life-time permanent.

The person has a right to seek third party verification (certification) of the information thereby enhancing the information acceptability. Information may also be verified at the request of present employer company or a company authorised by registered person to access his / her profile.

Registered person can choose to authorise a NSR registered company to view his / her profile. This ensures data privacy as only companies authorised by registered person can use the profile. The companies will access the profile for their reference and can request for a third party verification on the information represented by the registered professional. Present employer company declared by the person can access the profile and confirm present employ details without any specific authorization.

What are the details that are captured in NSR profile? How are such details used?

This fact sheet about each person contains personal, qualification and career information as entered by the person and his / her photograph. Registered professional or a participating company authorised by the professional can order for a verification of this information. The system will store results of source verification on the information as entered by empanelled third party background verification agencies (EBC). Detailed list of data-fields comprising profile of a professional is available at https://nationalskillsregistry.com/checklist.

The prospective employers who are part of this system can view the profiles of the registered professionals along with verification results, if authorised by such professional

How is NDML related to this national database?

NASSCOM has engaged the services of NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) for creating, operating and maintaining this database. NDML is a subsidiary of National Securities Depository Limited- the first depository in India.

How does it benefit me?

NSR registration provides the registered persons with an industry preferred profile on a central system. All leading companies participate in this initiative and would request reference to such profile. Registration also provides with a secure identity and credible profile. NSR provides control over access to the profile to the registered person. NSR also deters persons faking and inflating their CVs from competing for jobs based on hyped details. So all honest persons must register their correct details on NSR and stop the menace of faked resumes.

Benefit to the IT and ITeS industry by developing client comfort and getting more work is benefit of the professionals working in the industry. Increasingly, the foreign clients, especially, government or public bodies, are insisting on background check of an individual before recruitment. Thus, NSR verified resume ready for showcasing to such clients will have better opportunities. NSR could result in faster completion of HR processes (formalities) that depend on background checks.

Will my information remain confidential in the system?

Yes. Only you, your present employer and companies authorised by you can access your data.

The data is entered in to the system by you and not by any data entry agency. Only you can modify your data. Only you can modify your data by authenticating such modification by using a password which has to be different from the login password.

Your data will be verified by an empanelled background checking entity selected at your own request or by your employer.

Each and every access to your resume is logged and an audit trail is maintained in the system. All other entities that you have authorized to access your data can access it using digital signature certificate. Thus, the information provided by you will remain confidential in the system. Of course you will have to take care that you do not compromise with your password.

How can I use the system?

Once you get yourself registered in the system and obtain an identification number called "ITPIN", you will be provided an access to your profile on the database. You may then use the system to authorize any entity - say prospective employer - to view your resume. You may also view the status of your authorizations, i.e. whether the employer you have permitted to view your data has viewed your data or not. You may request for background check. The results of the background check will be registered in the database, which will enhance the value of your resume. You can modify or change your data as and when events that lead to a change in the data occur.

How do I register?

The registration is divided into two steps

Visit NSR website (https://nationalskillsregistry.com) and register your profile using the link "Register for NSR". Detailed registration checklist is available at https://nationalskillsregistry.com/checklist.html. The site will guide you with the registration process following are important

1.     Read and understand the terms and conditions for registration and usage of the database.

2.     Declare the details of the company that has requested you to register.

3.     Ensure to enter only correct and accurate information, if you do not have any information readily available it can be entered later.

4.     Memorise your passwords for accessing your profile later.

5.     Website registration is complete only after selecting the mode of payment and generating Acknowledgement Form.

Once the form is fully filled up, you may make the payment using your credit card on the "payment gateway". Alternatively, you may opt to pay through cash / DD while submitted bio-metrics. NSR Website will generate and Acknowledgement Form for you. You need to take a print out of this form which will contain acknowledgement number, space for your photograph, signature.

As NSR registration is supported by bio-metrics to ensure uniqueness of profiles, NSR has appointed centers called as POS to collect bio-metrics and conduct identity check. List of all the POS centers is available on the NSR site at https://nationalskillsregistry.com/POS.html or POS desk may be made available in your office for a limited period, check with your company HR team. You need to approach POS along with following

1.     Acknowledgement Form generated from NSR website,

2.     Photo proof of Identity (can be any of Driving license, Passport, Voters ID card, PAN Card, Bank Passbook with photo, college ID card (not more than 1 year old), Employer ID card)

3.     Employer ID card (if already employed).

4.     Registration fee (Rs. 300 + Service Tax, Total amount Rs. 331 at present) if not paid online.

Why are finger-prints required to be captured? Who all can access finger-prints data?

NSR is developing an industry wide database of employees with background check information. Users of the database are NASSCOM member companies and possibly their global clients. The database holds-out to the users that every Professional registered in the database is unique and is well identified. This is to support and augment industry's claim of benchmark information security environment in India.

It has to be appreciated that uniqueness of an individual is best established with bio-metrics (finger-prints in this case). NSR creates a life-time permanent profile of every registered person which becomes an industry identifier similar to social security number.

NSR uses finger-prints only for determining uniqueness of a new profile against already registered profiles. The finger-prints do not form part of the profile and even companies authorised by a registered professional cannot access the finger-prints data.

How much does it cost me to join and use the system?

The fee for joining is Rs. 300 (Initial registration fee Rs.250 + First year usage fees Rs. 50) plus service tax as applicable. Annual Usage fee of Rs.50/- (plus service tax as applicable).

For detailed information on fee please refer to https://nationalskillsregistry.com/FEE_STRUCTURE.html

If you, on your own, decide to request a background check on your profile, you may have to pay the back ground check fee to the Empanelled Background Checkers (EBC). Details are available on: https://nationalskillsregistry.com/EBC.html

How to make payment of annual usage fees? What if I do not pay?

You can pay annual usage fees through the payment gateway facility made available on https://nationalskillsregistry.com/. If you do not pay this fee, you may be denied access to your data in the database. However, your access rights will be resumed as soon as you pay all your arrears.

How many companies can I authorize at a time to view my data?

There are no restrictions on number of authorizations you may give for viewing your resume however at any point of time, not more than 10 authorizations may be active. You may decide the period for which your resume can be seen by each employer the maximum duration is 60 days, after which the authorization will expire. If you want, you can again authorize the same company.

Who are these background checking entities? How are they empanelled?

Background checking entities are the independent third party companies that have expertise and resources in the area of conducting verification of profiles. Such agencies apply to NSR to be able to provide background checking services through NSR system to companies and registered professionals.

The Empanelled Background Checking entities are selected jointly by NDML and NASSCOM for providing the background check services. These are selected after a selection committee has examined the applications of agencies applying for empanelment. These EBCs have agreed to follow standard verification procedures laid down by an expert group constituted by NSR.

How do I select an EBC to do background checking of my resume? What will be the cost? How can I see the verification results ?

If you desire to get your background check done, you may register your request for verification after logging into your NSR registered profile. You can select the details that want to get verified. The system will allocate an EBC from among the list of empanelled entities and intimation to that effect will be sent to you and to EBC by email.

EBC will contact you with the details of the documents required and fee to be paid for processing the request. The fee to be paid depends upon the scope of verifications i.e. how many details need to be verified. NSR has created a baseline verification package that can be availed (For details refer to: https://nationalskillsregistry.com/EBC.html). You may pay the fee and submit the documents to EBC.

EBC will conduct the verification and post the verification results against your NSR profile. This also makes background check process transparent as you can also view your verification report. NSR will also send you a mail once your verification is completed.

If EBC's remarks are not factually correct, how can I get it corrected?

If the remarks inserted by EBC are not factually correct, you may approach EBC with clarifications / additional documentation etc. If the circumstances so require, EBC will re-verify its report and get the report corrected.

If my ITPIN card is lost or I change my job or acquire a new qualification, will I have to apply for a new ITPIN?

Your NSR profile is life-time permanent profile and there is no need to register a new ITPIN. If there is any change in your qualifications, employment or address same can be updated to existing NSR profile. You may request for duplicate card, if your card is lost or destroyed.