NMC mandates Aadhaar-based attendance to curb ghost faculty practice

NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission has mandated Aadhaar-based facial authentication for accurately marking the attendance of faculty members. The new mode of recognition will come into effect from May 1, 2025.
According to a public notice on Tuesday, the NMC stated that the existing biometric attendance system will be discontinued and fully replaced by a more robust facial recognition system linked to Aadhaar. Faculty members across all medical colleges in the country are now required to install the official Aadhaar Face Authentication App on their smartphones. The app is available for download on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
The move is primarily aimed at enhancing the user experience and maintaining accurate attendance tracking. It will additionally solve the issue of proxy and non-existent faculty registrations of medical educational institutes. By linking attendance data with Aadhaar, the NMC aims to establish a more credible and transparent framework within medical education administration.
The commission underscored that the new system is designed not only to improve the user experience but also to eliminate long-standing issues of proxy attendance and fictitious faculty entries, problems that have plagued several medical institutions across the country. The NMC emphasized that this shift is in line with its broader efforts to bring transparency and accountability into medical education administration across India. The commission has reaffirmed its dedication to maintaining the standard of medical education and has called on all medical schools to make sure that the new guideline is strictly followed.
To prevent any operational interruptions, institutions and faculty members are encouraged to finish the required technological setup well in advance of the May 1 deadline. To ensure a seamless transfer to the new system, the NMC is anticipated to release further instructions and supporting documentation.