More than two million candidates were pushed back into uncertainty after a leaked medical entrance exam forced a mass retest in June and led to the resignation of the federal education minister. The breach struck at an institution created in 2017 to centralise and secure India’s most competitive assessments, including medical and engineering entrance papers, university admissions and eligibility checks for teaching and research.
The National Testing Agency was established to reduce the leaks and errors that long dogged high-stakes tests, but the recent incident has deepened doubts about its capacity. The government responded by appointing a high-level task force led by tech entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani to propose reforms and restore confidence. That intervention echoes a 2024 review that recommended more than 100 reforms, of which a little over half have reportedly been fully implemented.
Experts tell a similar story: vulnerabilities go beyond single incidents. BJ Rao, a member of the 2024 panel and now head of SGT University near Delhi, argued a shift to computer-based delivery would cut leak risks and reduce human handling. "Digital connectivity has vastly improved across the country, what we need to do is put in resources and focus on upgrading infrastructure and move to computer-based exams," he said. Rao also highlighted staffing weaknesses at the agency, noting that just 24 of its 221 employees are permanent and many come from bureaucratic backgrounds. "When you have a large portion of people who work on a temporary basis then there is no sense of belonging, and that has an impact on the functions as well," he added.
Other specialists favour changes to the exam format itself. Keshav Aggarwal recommends a two-stage, computer-based model like the engineering entrance test, with different sessions and question sets to dilute the risk tied to any single exam day. Yamini Aiyar has urged allowing students to sit major entrance tests more than once a year, an approach intended to lower the stakes of any cancellation and prevent a candidate from losing an entire academic year.
The human cost is already visible. Seventeen-year-old Pari described the retest as a major setback. "It was very frustrating. All our preparation had gone to waste, and we had to start all over again," she said. Mansi Bansal, 23, who paused normal life while awaiting a rescheduled UGC-NET paper, said she will retake an affected commerce paper on 9 September. "I put my life on hold all these months, stopping going to the gym, hanging out with friends or even attending family gatherings," she said. "Can the government promise a leak won't happen again?"
The immediate political consequence is clear, but the longer-term decision remains unresolved: policymakers must choose between stronger oversight and staffing reforms within the NTA, or a broader redesign of India’s high-stakes testing system toward computer-based, multi-session and more frequent exam opportunities. The Nilekani task force will decide which recommendations reach ministers next.
