APAAR ID explained: Centralised student records, privacy concerns and digital integration

The APAAR ID is a government-sanctioned digital identifier designed to centralise and verify academic records for students across institutions. APAAR ID purports to provide a single, government-sanctioned source of verified academic documentation, building on the concept of “One Nation, One Student ID.” By centralising verification – and requiring institutions to upload academic documents to an official repository – it ostensibly reduces forgeries. Is there a genuine need to centralize student data through the APAAR ID for improved academic management, or is this part of a broader government plan to centralise all data? By making Aadhaar linkage a prerequisite for an APAAR ID — especially when APAAR is becoming the default repository for academic records — this effectively forces parents to surrender Aadhaar data. What are the potential concerns regarding the implementation of APAAR ID without statutory backing, and how might this affect the protection of personal data and compliance with privacy standards?