Exam reforms: What can Nilekani taskforce find that previous panels didn't?

The new taskforce's first job should be to audit why the previous expert recommendations on overhauling examinations weren't implementedPrime Minister Narendra Modi, on July 26, announced a high-powered taskforce under Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend reforms in examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The proposed technology-led overhaul, he said, would make the examination system trustworthy, transparent and tech-savvy, while bringing structural change to the agency that runs it.The taskforce includes former ISRO chairman S. Somanath, former Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka, IIT Madras director V. Kamakoti, former education secretary Anita Karwal and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena. The announcement came a day after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister and a day before the Supreme Court said it would seek the panel’s views on shifting NEET (national medical entrance) to a computer-based format.On the face of it, this appears to be a strong response to the latest NEET-UG paper leak. But the government’s problem is not a shortage of expert advice. It already has two detailed reform blueprints—the K. Radhakrishnan Committee report of 2024 and the Parliamentary Standing Committee report of 2025. Both identified weaknesses in the NTA and suggested specific ways to prevent examination leaks. Many of those recommendations remain unfinished.The question, therefore, is: what will a third panel discover that the first two did not? The NTA is the government body that conducts some of India’s biggest entrance examinations, including JEE for engineering colleges, CUET for universities and NEET-UG for undergraduate medical admissions. NEET is particularly sensitive because one examination determines the fate of more than two million medical aspirants.The NEET-UG examination held on May 3 was cancelled after leaked material was found to match substantial portions of the actual question paper. Around 120 questions from a handwritten “guess paper” reportedly appeared in the examination. The NTA cancelled the test nationwide on May 12 and held a re-examination on June 21.Where the paper leaked matters. It did not go missing from a printing press, a courier van or a strongroom, as in 2024. It went out at the top of the chain, where questions are written and translated. That makes the failure even harder to explain because this was precisely the kind of vulnerability the Radhakrishnan Committee had warned against.After the NEET-UG controversy of 2024, the Union education ministry had formed a seven-member high-level committee of experts under former ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan. The panel held 23 full-day sittings, studied more than 37,000 responses and submitted 101 recommendations in October 2024. Its mandate covered question paper-setting, data security, transportation, test centres, NTA’s internal structure and technology. The government then created a high-powered steering committee in November 2024 to monitor implementation.The Radhakrishnan panel’s proposals on question papers were remarkably specific. It called for a trusted pool of vetted experts, clear rules for selecting paper-setters and vetters, conflict-of-interest declarations and non-disclosure agreements. Setters were preferably not to work in their home cities. Separate teams were to prepare multiple papers while language experts had to certify that no outsider had seen the content. The panel also wanted large question banks from which papers could be assembled through a secure and randomised process. This would break the direct link between an individual expert and the final paper.These proposals addressed the very point at which the 2026 leak allegedly occurred. According to the investigation detailed in the documents, some experts worked both as paper-setters and translators, giving a small group access to large parts of the examination. Had the recommended separation of roles, conflict checks, secure question banks and random selection been operational, the alleged insiders might never have known which questions would appear. The leak could plausibly have been prevented, or at least its scale sharply reduced.Yet the most important upstream reforms remained incomplete. The proposed vetted expert pools, secure question-setting systems, controlled-access confidential operations and tamper-resistant delivery were not implemented. Nor was the computer-assisted secure pen-and-paper system, under which encrypted papers would reach centres electronically and be printed shortly before the test.After this year’s leak, the government has announced that computer-based test would be introduced from next year. Multi-session testing for very large examinations and a multi-stage NEET were also left pending. Together, these measures would have reduced advance access and prevented one compromised paper from destroying the entire national examination.Of the 101 recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee, the government accepted all and has fully implemented 57. Ten are partly implemented, three are underway, four have been announced and 27 remain pending. The measures executed fastest were visible and logistical—Aadhaar authentication, biometric re-verification, government-owned centres and AI-enabled CCTV.The measures delayed were structural: multi-session testing for very large examinations, a multi-stage NEET-UG and the hybrid model in which encrypted papers travel digitally and are printed at the examination centre. The reforms introduced for 2025 hardened the logistics chain but left the paper-setting stage largely untouched. That is exactly where the system broke in 2026.Parliament had issued another warning. The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, chaired by Digvijaya Singh, tabled its 371st report on December 8, 2025. It found that of the 14 competitive examinations conducted by the NTA in 2024, at least five had run into serious trouble. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG were postponed, NEET-UG saw paper leaks and CUET results were delayed. The committee flatly said the NTA’s performance had “not inspired much confidence” and told it to get its act together because these failures were avoidable.The committee also recommended a nationwide blacklist of firms barred anywhere for failures in paper-setting, examination administration or evaluation. It demanded an annual report to Parliament and stronger control over private vendors. An RTI reply from the education ministry in June 2026, however, said it had no information about such a nationwide blacklist.RTI replies make the weakness within the NTA clearer. The NTA’s governing body met only twice in the 30 months between January 1, 2024, and June 1, 2026. The agency refused to release the minutes, citing confidentiality. Only 24 of its 39 sanctioned permanent posts were filled. It depended on 73 contractual employees and 124 outsourced workers to conduct 15 major national examinations. Only four of 13 sanctioned director posts were occupied. An agency handling the futures of millions was operating with large vacancies and heavy dependence on temporary manpower.The committee also showed that the NTA did not lack money. It had collected about Rs 3,512.98 crore and spent Rs 3,064.77 crore on examinations over six years, leaving a surplus of roughly Rs 448 crore. It recommended using this money to build the NTA’s own testing capacity or improve supervision of vendors. A Rajya Sabha reply on July 22 put the agency’s savings between 2019-20 and 2023-24 at close to Rs 520 crore. Yet this money has not been used to fill the institutional gaps exposed by the RTI replies. The agency remains short of permanent staff and dependent on outsourced manpower.The new taskforce, therefore, makes little sense unless its first job is to audit why the earlier recommendations were not implemented. Before the Nilekani panel writes a single new recommendation, it must find answer to an older question: why were the last 101 not enough?Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Akshita JollyPublished On: Jul 31, 2026 20:27 IST