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'Eye on the future': PM Modi announces task force on exam reforms, day after Pradhan's resignation
The video comes after former Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned following weeks of sweeping protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced a six-member high-powered task force headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend technological interventions and structural reforms to overhaul the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) examination system.
The announcement came a day after the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan following the 36-day student agitation over irregularities in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and a day before the government is set to introduce a bill in Parliament providing for imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines of up to ₹10 crore for those convicted of paper leaks.
What PM Modi said in his video message
In a video message posted on Instagram, Modi said the government had already established fast-track courts to try examination malpractice cases and was moving to strengthen the legal framework, but said broader reforms were needed to restore confidence in the examination system.
“Our examination system needs to be reliable and transparent, and it must make maximum use of technology. Keeping all these factors in mind, we have decided to constitute a high-powered task force under the leadership of the world-renowned technology expert Nandan Nilekani. This task force will focus on examination reforms, and based on its report, steps will be taken to ensure the credibility of upcoming examinations at the earliest,” he said.
Also read | Dharmendra Pradhan resigns as education minister amid massive paper leak protests
Apart from Nilekani, the panel will comprise former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath, former Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras director V Kamakoti, former education secretary Anita Karwal and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena.
According to people aware of the matter, the multidisciplinary group has been tasked with recommending technological interventions and structural reforms for the National Testing Agency, with a particular focus on strengthening the examination system through technology.
The Congress questioned the need for a fresh panel, arguing that the Centre was yet to fully implement the recommendations of the K Radhakrishnan Committee, constituted in June 2024 after the NEET-UG controversy that year.
Also read | 'Dharmendra Pradhan offered to resign on Day 1 of protests’: BJP leader makes bombshell claim
The seven-member committee headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan submitted its report in October 2024, recommending structural strengthening of the NTA, closer coordination with states, tighter oversight of outsourced vendors and stronger safeguards for both pen-and-paper and computer-based examinations, including encrypted digital transmission of question papers, multi-layer access controls, real-time audit trails and enhanced CCTV surveillance.
"Attempt to fix Pradhan Mantri’s image"
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the government had not implemented all 101 recommendations of the committee and had left the NTA without a full-time director general for much of the period between the 2024 and 2026 examination controversies. In a post on X, he described the new task force as “a high-powered attempt to fix the Pradhan Mantri’s irretrievably compromised image.”
After Subodh Kumar Singh was removed as NTA director general in June 2024 following the NEET-UG controversy, retired IAS officer Pradeep Singh Kharola was given additional charge of the post until Abhishek Singh took over as the agency’s full-time director general on April 1, 2026.
A parliamentary standing committee on education, in a report tabled in December 2025, found that at least five of the 14 competitive examinations conducted by the NTA in 2024 and early 2025 had faced “major issues”.
Government officials, however, said several recommendations of the Radhakrishnan committee had already been implemented. These include creation of 16 additional permanent posts in the NTA, constitution of district-level coordination committees headed by district magistrates for NEET-UG, and shifting examination centres to government or government-owned buildings, with the NTA claiming 94% compliance.
However, many of the reforms remain incomplete. Of the NTA’s 39 sanctioned permanent posts, all to be filled on deputation, only 24 are occupied. The agency currently functions with 73 contractual employees and 124 outsourced personnel, despite the committee recommending replacement of contractual staffing with a permanent and accountable workforce.
The Centre is also considering introducing an upper age limit and capping the number of attempts for NEET-UG, which currently has no such restrictions. It is also planning a gradual transition to computer-based testing, another recommendation of the Radhakrishnan committee.
The NTA informed the parliamentary panel in May this year that the first phase of reforms, implemented for NEET-UG 2026 and the June 21 re-examination, included Aadhaar-linked biometric verification, facial authentication, multi-layer police frisking, mobile jammers and AI-enabled CCTV surveillance. The second phase under consideration includes cloud-based infrastructure, stronger encryption, an NTA-owned public testing platform and eventual harmonisation of engineering and medical entrance examinations through common standards and processes.
The announcement came a day after Pradhan resigned, becoming the first Union minister in the National Democratic Alliance government’s three terms to step down following the student protests. The Centre also accepted key demands raised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which spearheaded the agitation, including compensation for families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide following examination irregularities and the withdrawal of first information reports registered against protesters, prompting organisers to call off their stir at Jantar Mantar on Saturday.
Union consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi, who was given additional charge of the education ministry after Pradhan’s resignation, assumed office on Sunday and held his first review meeting with senior officials at Kartavya Bhavan.
Opposition parties are expected to raise the NEET controversy and the proposed anti-paper leak legislation when Parliament resumes on Monday.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said the organisation would continue to monitor implementation of the government’s assurances and campaign for wider examination reforms. “The protest has ended. The movement has not,” he said.
