E-Paper
Centre appoints Sandip Mishra as NTA director
Mishra will be replacing Pradeep Singh Kharola as the director of NTA. He will be heading the agency for the next five years. Archana Shukla, Amit Kumar and Shivani has been appointed as joint directors for four years.
NEW DELHI: The Union government has appointed Sandip Kumar Mishra as the director of National Testing Agency (NTA). Mishra’s appointment along with three joint directors comes three days after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced the restructuring of the agency to improve its functioning in keeping with the recommendations of a high-level committee set up in June 2024 after the agency was caught up in paper leak controversies.
Mishra will be replacing Pradeep Singh Kharola as the director of NTA. He will be heading the agency for the next five years. Archana Shukla, Amit Kumar and Shivani has been appointed as joint directors for four years.
“Sandip Kumar Mishra IRS (IT) (2007) who was recommended for central deputation by the department of revenue has been selected for appointment as director in the National Testing Agency under department of higher education, Delhi under the central staffing scheme for a period of five years from the date of taking over charge of the post or until further orders whichever event takes place earlier. He may kindly be relieved office duties immediately with the instructions to take up new assignment in the National Testing Agency under department of higher education,” the government said in a notification on Friday.
A Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) alumnus, Mishra had been currently serving as Joint Commissioner of Income Tax before his appointment to NTA.
In June this year, the Central government had appointed Kharola -- after removing Subodh Kumar Singh -- to lead NTA, following allegations of irregularities in National Eligiblility cum Entrance Testing-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) and University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET exams) conducted by the testing agency in May and June respectively.
Following widespread reports of malpractices in NEET-UG exam, with the matter even reaching the Supreme Court, Centre set up a seven-member panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan in June to suggest ways to improve NTA’s functioning. The committee submitted its report to the government on October 21.
According to the panel suggestions, NTA will, from 2025, conduct only entrance exams for higher education institutions and not recruitment exams.
Established in 2017, NTA conducts major entrance examinations such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main for engineering; the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) for medicine; and the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for general Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes in central universities.
