"Structural overhaul, not technology fixes, needed to end exam leaks"
National Testing Agency (NTA)
Autonomous body under Ministry of Education, established 2017, conducts centralised entrance examinations including NEET and JEE
Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024
Central law criminalising paper leaks and organised malpractice in specified public examinations, with penalties up to ten years' imprisonment
India's public examination ecosystem underwent a fundamental transformation when the National Testing Agency (NTA) was established in 2017 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education to conduct high-stakes centralised entrance examinations. Before the NTA era, states administered their own engineering, medical, and law entrance tests, distributing both administrative responsibility and accountability across multiple institutions. The shift to centralised testing — most consequentially through NEET for medical admissions — was driven by a stated goal of uniformity and reducing the burden on students appearing in multiple state-level tests. The Supreme Court upheld NEET's constitutional validity in 2016, overriding federalism-based objections raised by several states.
Prior to recent legislative action, no dedicated central statute criminalised paper leaks in public examinations. Malpractice was prosecuted under general provisions of the Indian Penal Code and state-level laws, which proved inadequate deterrents given the scale of organised cheating networks. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 was enacted to fill this gap, prescribing penalties up to ten years' imprisonment for organised malpractice in centrally conducted examinations. Despite this, integrity failures continued, prompting the constitution of the Radhakrishnan Committee to review the NTA's structure. The committee recommended disaggregating NTA's functions and introducing end-to-end encryption for question paper transmission — recommendations that had not been fully implemented when subsequent crises emerged.
The structural critique of India's examination governance rests on several interlocking problems. The first is institutional design: the NTA was entrusted with conducting examinations for millions of candidates with a skeletal staff and outsourced logistics — including question paper printing and distribution — creating multiple points of vulnerability in the accountability chain. Unlike the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States, which uses an algorithmic question-bank model with no fixed question-setters, the NTA relies on identifiable human question-setters, creating opportunities for selection bias and targeted leaks.
The second structural problem is federalism erosion. When states administered their own tests, they had a direct institutional stake in maintaining examination integrity — a failed state exam was a political liability for the state government. Centralisation transferred both the function and the accountability to a single national body, while simultaneously reducing states' incentive and capacity to act as watchdogs. …
With reference to the National Testing Agency (NTA), consider the following statements:
1.It was established in 2017 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education.
2.It conducts examinations only for medical and engineering admissions.
3.The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 applies to examinations conducted by the NTA.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following statements regarding education as a legislative subject in India:
1.Education is exclusively a Union List subject, giving Parliament sole authority to legislate on it.
2.Both Parliament and state legislatures can legislate on education, with Parliament's law prevailing in case of conflict.
3.The constitutional placement of education on the Concurrent List provides a basis for states to conduct their own entrance examinations.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Assertion (A): Centralising entrance examinations under a single national agency reduces states' institutional incentive to maintain examination integrity.
Reason (R): When states administered their own tests, political accountability for examination failures rested directly with state governments.
Which of the following is correct?
Which of the following structural reforms was recommended by the Radhakrishnan Committee constituted to review the National Testing Agency?
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