Passing certificates redesigned for med students to end forgery

Individual QR codes, embossed logo, holograms, hidden (bleed) lines and watermarks — these are the five security features the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has

Individual QR codes, embossed logo, holograms, hidden (bleed) lines and watermarks — these are the five security features the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has introduced in its redesigned passing certificates to curb the use of fake ones.

HT Image

In a first, the council has redesigned the certificates for both graduation and post-graduation students after it has found 105 doctors from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), Parel, guilty of submitting fake post-graduation certificates since 2016.

“So far, we used to give simple print-outs of certificates with the registration number of the doctors…[the certificates] didn’t have any unique security measures. During the investigations of the [accused] doctors, we found out that owing to the modest design of the certificates, it became easier for fraudsters to make copies. Thus, we had to redesign it with all the security features to help curb cases of forgery,” said Dr Shivkumar Utture, president of the council. Before starting with the process, MMC synchronised the data of registered doctors with individual QR codes. This would help them find the profiles of doctors within minutes through their centralised data system. The certificates would also have several hidden lines in orange, below the signature of the registrar, making it difficult to replicate the same.

MMC had uncovered the fake certificate racket when they started verification of the documents submitted by doctors for registration.