Before Team Nilekani, ex-ISRO chief-led panel tried to fix exams: What its report said

The Centre’s decision regarding the Nilekani-led committee has brought attention to an earlier reform blueprint: the K Radhakrishnan Committee report. The Committee, which was constituted in 2024 after the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak controversy, submitted a report containing 101 recommendations “with short term, medium term and long-term perspective”.

The report was prepared under former ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan and submitted to the Ministry of Education in October 2024. The panel said that the report was developed after “twenty-three formal full-day physical sittings” and more than 37,000 responses received from students and parents through the MyGov portal. Its stated vision was to transform the National Testing Agency (NTA) into “a nimble, zero-error, adaptive and integrative process”.

Why was it constituted?

Constituted amidst “the rousing public concern on the integrity of entrance tests after reports of breaches and leakage of question paper”, initially, the Ministry of Education asked the panel to recommend reforms in three areas: improving examination processes, strengthening data security, and reviewing the NTA’s structure and functioning.

Its mandate later expanded after directions from the Supreme Court in Vanshika Yadav v. Union of India. The additional terms of reference included examination security and administration, technological safeguards, policy and stakeholder engagement, international collaboration, staff training, and mental-health support for students.

What did it find?

Instead of treating paper leaks as isolated incidents, the report argued that vulnerabilities existed across the entire examination ecosystem. It mapped weaknesses throughout what it called the “Testing Life Cycle” — from printing and transporting question papers to candidate verification, examination centre management, and grievance redressal. 

The report found that the NTA had been “operating as a single window agency” despite having “conducted more than 240 examinations since its inception involving over 5.4 crore candidates”. It concluded that the agency’s “present capacity and internal domain expertise need to be augmented”.

Replacing physical transport with digital delivery

The report’s central technological recommendation was Computer-assisted Secure Pen-and-Paper Testing (CPPT), designed “to eliminate potential breaches during the printing, storage and transportation chains” of question papers.

Instead of printing papers at central presses and transporting them across the country, encrypted question papers would be transmitted electronically to secure servers at examination centres and printed there shortly before the examination. At the same time, candidates would continue writing conventional pen-and-paper tests.

By eliminating the need to transport printed question papers over long distances, the committee believed the model would significantly reduce opportunities for leaks during transit.

DIGI-EXAM 

The committee also proposed a digital authentication framework called DIGI-EXAM, modelled “on the lines of ‘Digi Yatra’”,  to ensure “that ONLY the candidate writing the exam joins the intended programme”.

Instead of verifying candidates only on examination day, the system envisaged a continuous  “multi-stage authentication of candidate’s” across application, examination, and admission stages using Aadhar, biometrics, and AI-based analytics. 

A complete overhaul of the NTA

The report argued that technology alone would not solve the NTA’s problems. It said the agency needed stronger institutional capacity and should reduce dependence on outsourced agencies for critical examination functions.

Former ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan. The report was submitted to the Ministry of Education in October 2024. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

It recommended that the NTA’s Governing Body “be recast as an empowered and accountable Apex Body” headed by a Director General “not below the rank of Additional Secretary to GoI”. It also proposed creating 10 dedicated verticals within the agency, including Nation-wide Testing Centre Infrastructure, Information Security, Vigilance and Forensics, and Research and Development.

Testing centres

To reduce dependence on private vendors, the committee recommended developing “at least 1,000 SecureTesting Centres… in a phased manner, in reputed Government institutions,” in accessible locations requiring power supply, seating requirements, technical support and candidate support facilities such as lockers for phones, ventilation in exam halls, help desks, and waiting areas for families of the candidates. 

For remote and underserved regions, it proposed mobile testing centre buses equipped with laptops and servers that would function as fully operational examination centres for around 150 candidates.

For examinations involving very large numbers of candidates, the report recommended moving towards Multi-Session Testing spread over several days or weeks. It also described Multi-Stage Testing for NEET-UG as “a viable possibility”.

Where multiple sessions are held, it stressed that score normalisation should be transparent and properly established and documented. Over the longer term, it also recommended gradually shifting towards Computer Adaptive Testing, in which question difficulty adjusts according to a candidate’s performance.

Mental health

The report also placed considerable focus on student welfare to make their approach “holistic”. Its recommendations included creating a dedicated mental-health cell within the NTA, tele-helplines, counselling services, and teacher sensitisation programmes. It also suggested that “a suitable oversight mechanism may be considered for Coaching Institutes”, citing concerns over student stress and the financial burden placed on families.

The committee recommended equipping the NTA’s Grievance Reporting and Redressal Cell with AI and machine learning-based interactive chatbots so that candidates could “receive clarifications in the language of their choice” for queries that arise during the examination process.

On implementation 

Recognising that expert reports often remain on paper, the committee proposed establishing “a high-powered steering committee” under the Ministry of Education to oversee implementation of its recommendations “in mission mode and within a time frame”.

The proposed body, it said, would mentor the NTA, help overcome implementation bottlenecks and submit regular progress reports to the ministry.