Demonstrating India’s leadership in security practices within the IT industry, NASSCOM, the country’s prominent trade body and voice of the IT software and service industry has launched the first ever National Skills Registry (NSR) for IT professionals, to minimize the risk of engaging an employee on the basis of fake documents or exaggerated resumes.

Launched in collaboration with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), NSR is an attempt to further strengthen security in the Indian IT industry. This will be a centralized database of information about the employee’s professional and educational background. The NSR has been specifically designed to ensure authenticity of data through independent verification and biometric identification of the individual. The repository, which is purely voluntary for both employees and the companies, will have seven agencies doing background checks including KPMG and Advantage Quest.

Billed as a pro-active step by Indian IT/BPO industry to ensure that customer information is in safe and secure hands, NSR will cut down on the risk of engaging any employee on the basis of fake/forged documents. It will also facilitate faster completion of HR processes that depend on background checks.

Five companies including TCS, CMC, Genpact, Satyam and Mphasis have signed up for the database. “Companies which sign up for the NSR will have details of all their existing employees,” said Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom.

NSR will contain fingerprints of the all employees, their background checks and act as a safeguard for any data security threats. “The fingerprints of the employees and their educational backgrounds will ensure that no data is stolen or any security is compromised,” added Karnik.