The University Grants Commission (UGC) is the statutory body under the UGC Act 1956 that recognises Indian universities and authorises them to confer degrees under Section 22 of the Act. Employers, embassies and admission officers can verify whether an institution is recognised by checking UGC's consolidated lists of central, state, deemed-to-be, and private universities, along with the rolling 'Fake Universities' list of unrecognised entities. Beyond institutional recognition, individual degrees are validated through the National Academic Depository (NAD) when the awarding university has uploaded the record. UGC also publishes lists of programmes approved by the Distance Education Bureau and dual-degree partnerships.