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Who is S Radha Chauhan, retired IAS officer heading one-member panel on CBSE's OSM probe?
Retired IAS officer S Radha Chauhan has been tasked to investigate issues related to the procurement of services for the CBSE's OSM system.
The Centre on Tuesday set up a one-member inquiry committee, headed by retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer S Radha Chauhan, to examine alleged irregularities linked to the glitch-hit on-screen marking (OSM) system. The government also transferred Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta.
Notably, Prashant Lokhande was named the new CBSE chairman on Tuesday. Rahul Singh, meanwhile, has been posted as an additional secretary in the ministry of agriculture, according to a government order.
The developments come as the CBSE faces mounting pressure over reports of technical problems in its post-result portal and alleged discrepancies in the evaluation of Class 12 board examination answer sheets through the OSM system.
Who is S Radha Chauhan, the retired IAS officer heading the OSM probe?
- Retired IAS officer S Radha Chauhan has been tasked to investigate issues related to the procurement of services for the CBSE's OSM system.
- Her committee has been asked to submit its findings to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) within one month, the memorandum said.
- Chauhan currently serves as chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission (CBC), which works on standardising civil services training and capacity-building initiatives across the country.
- She belongs to the 1988 batch of the Uttar Pradesh cadre and retired as secretary of the department of personnel and training in 2025, according to reports.
- A law graduate by training, she has worked in sectors including women's education, health, child development, rural development, urban development and skill development.
- Over the years, she has held several administrative positions, including commissioner of Ghaziabad, chief executive officer of the Noida Authority, deputy chief executive officer of Greater Noida, and additional commissioner and district magistrate in Bulandshahr, Pilibhit, Agra and Meerut, News18 Hindi said in a report.
- She also reportedly worked as joint secretary in the department of school education and literacy under the ministry of human resource development between 2011 and 2015. She later served as chairperson and chief executive officer of the national e-governance division (NeGD).
Row over CBSE’s OSM system
The decision comes after backlash from parents and teachers, along with a series of HT reports flagging concerns over the implementation of a new system designed to assess nearly 10 million answer scripts.
As HT reported earlier, the CBSE's governing body had recommended pilot projects across regional offices in June 2025 before introducing the system nationwide. However, the board did not implement that recommendation.
HT also reported that an internal observation report prepared after a dry run of the OSM system at five schools in Delhi in January 2026 identified at least 36 technical, operational and evaluation-related issues.
Another report said that the CBSE issued three tenders between February 2025 and August 2025 and relaxed certain rules related to scanning and other procedures while selecting a company to implement the OSM system in 2026.
