eSanad portal, a digital platform for online verification, attestation and apostille of documents by Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India was launched in Chandigarh University on 30th September 2024 at an impressive function held in the University auditorium. eSanad is a public centric portal which would simplify the process of verification of documents by Document Issuing Authorities (DIAs), first level of attestation by concerned state government departments and final attestation, apostille by CPV Division, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. The existing manual system of attestation, apostille is a convoluted and time consuming process due to personal visits of the applicants to DIAs, concerned state government departments and CPV Division, MEA. eSanad would provide a faceless, cashless and paperless services to the applicants for attestation, apostille of all types of documents like personal as well as educational documents, transcripts.

            It is important to mention that Govt. of Punjab has already implemented the application for Personal documents in all the districts of Punjab w.e.f September 2024 and applicants can now apply through eSanad portal only. In one month of its successful operations around 5700 applications have been received out of which around 3200 verified by DIAs & Department of NRI Affairs and over 2300 attestation, apostilles done by CPV Division, MEA.  In the Educational Category of documents, Chandigarh University became the first educational institute, not only in Punjab but in North India, to onboard on eSanad to provide this facility for the welfare of their students.

            For the launch of eSanad in Chandigarh University, Sh Dilip Kumar, IAS Principal, Department of NRI Affairs, Govt of Punjab was the chief guest and Sh Sanyam Aggarwal, IAS Director, Department of Higher Education, Govt. of Punjab was the guest of honour.

            Th event was also graced by Sh. IPS Sethi, Deputy Director General & HoG, MEA Informatics Division, NIC HQ and Sh. Vivek Verma, Deputy Director General & SIO, Punjab. Sh IPS Sethi gave an overview of the online services launched by NIC to empower the citizens and support Digital India vision as envisaged by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. Sh Raj Kumar Tickoo, Sr. Director (IT) gave a detailed presentation of eSanad portal to the dignitaries on the dais and international as well as domestic students of Chandigarh University present in the auditorium. Ms Kirti Mahajan, Director (IT), NIC Punjab also provided the technical support during this event. Besides the officers of State government and NIC, Sh. Satnam Singh Sandhu, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Prof (Dr.) Manpreet Singh Manna, Vice Chancellor, Prof (Dr.) R.S. Bawa, Advisor to Chancellor Chandigarh University and Prof (Dr.) Sandeep Salhotra, Controller of Examinations were also in attendance during the launch of eSanad portal.