03 / Compliance-as-a-Service

Compliance-as-a-Service on a sovereign cloud

Indian institutions now answer to more regulators at once than ever before: the DPDP Act and its 2025 Rules, the CERT-In Directions, UGC regulations, NAAC, NIRF, AISHE and the ABC and APAAR framework. Each one asks for data, controls or reports, usually from the same student and staff records.

We host your institutional systems on a sovereign cloud in India, in an environment isolated for your institution alone, and run compliance as part of daily operations. Consent, logging, breach reporting, submissions and audit trails are built into the platform, so meeting a deadline is a matter of reviewing a report rather than starting a project.

The problem we solve

Compliance at most institutions is a series of annual emergencies. Student data sits on a vendor's servers and nobody can say in which country. Consent was never collected because forms were designed before the DPDP Act. Logs are overwritten after thirty days, so a CERT-In or police request for six months of records cannot be met. AISHE, NIRF and NAAC each ask for overlapping figures, entered three times by three people, and the numbers do not match. Credits are uploaded to ABC in a rush after results, and RTI requests for records take weeks because nobody knows which system holds what.

What you have at the end

  • A separate tenant or private network for your institution, hosted in India, with a written data-residency statement
  • A live register of personal data you hold, why you hold it and on what lawful basis
  • Consent and verifiable parental consent workflows running on every relevant form
  • Logs retained for 180 days in India, a tested six-hour CERT-In reporting path and a breach-notification runbook under the DPDP Rules
  • AISHE, NIRF and NAAC submissions drawn from one consistent data set
  • Audit trails on every record change, and records retrievable quickly for audits and RTI requests

Scope of service

01

A separate tenant or VPC per institution, hosted in India where the law requires it

Each institution gets its own isolated environment: a dedicated tenant or virtual private cloud with its own encryption keys, access controls and network boundaries. Data is hosted in Indian data centres, which meets the CERT-In log-localisation requirement and any contractual or sectoral residency obligation you carry. Where you choose to keep some data elsewhere, the map of what sits where is written down and approved. Facility names and the hosting model are not published on this page.

Deliverables

  • Isolated tenant or VPC provisioned for your institution
  • Written data-residency statement listing where each data set is stored
  • Encryption at rest and in transit, with key-management documentation
  • Role-based access with named administrators and access reviews
  • Full data export on request and at exit
02

DPDP Act 2023: consent manager, verifiable parental consent for students under 18, breach notification

We build the DPDP Act 2023 and DPDP Rules 2025 into your systems: clear notices, consent capture and withdrawal, a consent management workflow, and verifiable consent from a parent or guardian before processing a child's data, where 'child' means anyone under 18. We set up the process to inform affected students and the Data Protection Board of India of a personal data breach without delay, and to send the Board the detailed report within 72 hours, as Rule 7 requires. We also handle data-principal requests for access, correction and erasure, and flag where the Rules give educational institutions limited exemptions. The Rules were notified on 13 November 2025, and most duties of data fiduciaries apply from 13 May 2027. Later commencement changes are not described on this page.

Deliverables

  • Personal data inventory and processing register
  • Notice and consent text for every form, in English and Indian languages
  • Verifiable parental consent workflow for students under 18
  • Consent records, withdrawal handling and data-principal request portal
  • Breach-notification runbook with templates for students and the Data Protection Board
03

CERT-In 2022: 6-hour incident reporting, 180-day logs kept in India

Under the CERT-In Directions of 28 April 2022, notified cyber incidents must be reported to CERT-In within six hours of being noticed, and ICT system logs must be maintained for a rolling 180 days within Indian jurisdiction. We collect and retain the logs, synchronise clocks to the national time sources, monitor for incidents and run the reporting path with your designated point of contact. If something happens at 2 a.m., the clock is already running and our team is already on it.

Deliverables

  • Centralised log collection with 180-day retention in India
  • Clock synchronisation configured across systems
  • Incident monitoring and triage
  • Six-hour reporting runbook and pre-filled CERT-In reporting format
  • Point-of-contact designation support and annual drill
04

UGC ODL and Online regulations

For institutions running or planning Open and Distance Learning or Online programmes, we keep the platform and records aligned with the UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020, as amended. That covers the records UGC expects for admissions, learner support, proctored examinations and disclosures on your website. Entitlement criteria and conditions change with amendments, so we check them against the current notified text before every application. Numeric thresholds are not published on this page.

Deliverables

  • Compliance checklist against the current UGC ODL and Online regulations
  • Mandatory website disclosures for ODL and Online programmes
  • Admission, learner-support and examination records kept in the required form
  • Pre-submission review for UGC applications and reports
05

Automated AISHE, NIRF and NAAC (SSR/AQAR/DVV) submissions

AISHE, NIRF and NAAC ask for many of the same figures: students, faculty, programmes, finances, results and placements. We hold those figures once, in a validated data set, and generate each submission from it, so your numbers match across all three. For NAAC, that covers the Self Study Report, the Annual Quality Assurance Report and responses to Data Validation and Verification queries, with the evidence documents linked. A person on your side still reviews and submits each return; we prepare it.

Deliverables

  • Single institutional data set with validation rules
  • AISHE data-capture format prepared from live data
  • NIRF data prepared in the published parameters
  • NAAC SSR and AQAR drafts with linked evidence, and DVV response support
  • Cross-submission consistency report before each deadline
06

ABC, APAAR and DigiLocker integration

The service is designed to connect your student record to the Academic Bank of Credits, APAAR IDs and DigiLocker/NAD, so credits, results and certificates can reach students through the national systems as part of your normal result process. Mismatches between your record and the national registry are reported, not discovered by a student years later. Our integration route and onboarding status are not stated on this page.

Deliverables

  • Student record mapped to APAAR IDs and ABC accounts
  • Credit and result upload built into result processing
  • Certificate and degree issuance to DigiLocker/NAD
  • Reconciliation report of records that do not match
07

Audit trails and RTI-ready records

Every create, change and delete on a student, staff, exam or financial record is logged with who, when and what changed, and the log itself cannot be edited. For institutions covered by the Right to Information Act, records are indexed so a request can be answered within the statutory time. The same trail answers auditors, regulators and courts.

Deliverables

  • Tamper-evident audit log on core records
  • Records index showing which system holds what
  • RTI request tracker with statutory time limits
  • Audit-ready reports for internal, statutory and regulatory audits

How an engagement runs

  1. 01

    Map the data

    We list every system that holds personal or academic data, where it is hosted, who can access it and which regulation applies to it.

  2. 02

    Gap report

    A written report against DPDP, CERT-In, UGC, NAAC, NIRF, AISHE and ABC/APAAR, with each gap ranked by legal exposure and effort. This is the same report our free institutional audit produces.

  3. 03

    Move and isolate

    We provision your isolated environment in India and migrate systems in planned stages, with rollback at each step and no disruption to admissions or exam periods.

  4. 04

    Build compliance in

    Consent, logging, audit trails and the submission data set are switched on, and the reporting runbooks are rehearsed with your team.

  5. 05

    Run and report

    We operate the platform, watch the regulatory calendar and send a monthly compliance report to leadership, plus a review whenever a rule changes.

Who this is for

Regulations covered

Questions, answered

Does using your platform make us compliant?

It makes compliance much easier, but legal responsibility stays with your institution as the data fiduciary and the reporting entity. We build and operate the controls, prepare the reports and tell you when something needs a decision. Your leadership still decides and signs. Our regulation summaries are guidance, not legal advice.

Is all our data really in India?

Yes, by default, and we state it in writing. If you choose to keep any system outside India, we document exactly which data that is and why, so you can make the decision knowingly.

Are you certified for information security?

We do not list ISO 27001, SOC 2, MeitY empanelment or similar certifications on this page. We will share our security documentation and let your auditors review our controls. A certification will be named here only when it is held and can be verified.

When do the DPDP Rules actually apply to us?

The DPDP Rules 2025 bring obligations into force in phases after notification, with most duties on data fiduciaries applying after a transition period. Waiting for the last date is risky because consent has to be collected at the point data is gathered. The Rules were notified on 13 November 2025; consent-manager registration opens a year later, and most duties, including notice, consent, security safeguards, breach reporting and children's data, apply from 13 May 2027. See the DPDP page for the full timeline. Later commencement changes are not described on this page.

What if we want to leave?

You get a complete export of your data in open formats, plus the documentation needed to run it elsewhere. Exit terms are written into the contract from day one.

We use Samarth or another government platform. Does this still apply?

Yes. We work alongside government platforms rather than replacing them, handling the systems and records outside them and making sure the data stays consistent across both.

Book a free compliance and infrastructure audit.

A senior consultant reviews your data, systems and regulatory position with your team and gives you a written gap report. There is no cost and no obligation to buy anything.

A senior consultant reviews your data, systems and regulatory position with your team and gives you a written gap report, at no cost.