New Delhi, India — The fallout from the NEET UG paper leak has brought a familiar name back into India’s examination reform debate. The Nandan Nilekani-led task force examining NTA reforms has consulted K Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), whose committee had earlier submitted 101 recommendations for strengthening the country’s high-stakes examination system.
The consultation comes at a crucial moment for the National Testing Agency (NTA). With questions still surrounding examination security, technology, candidate verification and institutional accountability, the government is now examining whether earlier recommendations can provide a foundation for a broader overhaul..
Its first interim report is expected by the end of September, according to information given by the Centre to the Supreme Court earlier this month.
Why Former ISRO Chief K Radhakrishnan Is Back in the NTA Reform Debate
K Radhakrishnan brings an unusual combination of experience to the examination reform process. Before becoming chairman of ISRO, he held senior responsibilities across India’s space programme, including roles involving complex technological systems, large-scale operations and mission management.
His relevance to the NTA debate, however, comes primarily from the Radhakrishnan Committee on examination reforms, which was constituted after the NEET-UG 2024 controversy.
The committee submitted 101 recommendations covering areas ranging from question-paper security and candidate registration to cybersecurity, technology, examination-centre management and NTA governance.
Now, as the Nandan Nilekani-led panel examines the future of NTA, those recommendations are being brought back into the conversation.
That distinction is crucial.
A secure question paper alone cannot guarantee a secure examination if other parts of the system remain vulnerable.
What did the Radhakrishnan Committee recommend?
Among its proposals were stronger controls over critical examination systems, including:
- Question-paper management
- Candidate registration
- Fee-payment systems
- Admit-card generation
- Computer-based testing
- OMR processing
- Score normalisation
- Result processing
- Data and cyber security
- NTA governance and organisational restructuring
The committee also proposed restricting the NTA primarily to higher-education entrance examinations and strengthening its internal governance and technical capabilities.
An earlier Indian Express analysis of the report highlighted proposals such as Computer-assisted Secure Pen-and-Paper Testing (CPPT), where encrypted papers could be transmitted electronically to secure examination centres and printed shortly before an examination. The committee also proposed a multi-stage digital authentication framework known as DIGI-EXAM.
NEET UG Paper Leak Has Turned Exam Security Into a System Question
For students, the issue is bigger than whether a particular examination paper remains confidential.
NEET is a national-scale examination in which a failure at one point in the process can affect candidates far beyond the location where the problem occurs. The 2026 controversy and the subsequent re-examination have therefore intensified scrutiny of the entire NTA system.
The NTA’s own current website continues to publish NEET-UG 2026 notices, results and examination-related updates, while also carrying warnings concerning fake, altered or AI-generated examination documents and social-media claims involving OMR sheets.
That changing threat environment is one reason technology has become such a prominent part of the reform discussion.
From Paper Security to AI and Computer-Based Testing
The Nilekani panel is examining how technology can strengthen the examination system, while the NTA has separately indicated that NEET-UG could eventually move to computer-based testing (CBT).
NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said earlier in September that CBT is the future of the agency’s examinations. The proposed transition, however, would require substantially expanded secure testing infrastructure across the country.
The agency is also exploring artificial intelligence and data analytics to examine examination logs, identify unusual patterns and detect possible malpractice.
That creates a second challenge: technology can close some vulnerabilities, but it also creates new requirements for cybersecurity, infrastructure, authentication and operational resilience.
The reform question is therefore no longer simply “How do you stop a paper leak?”
It is increasingly becoming: “How do you build an examination system that can withstand failure, manipulation and technological threats at every stage?”
Supreme Court Pushes for a Permanent NTA Structure
The reform exercise is also unfolding under close judicial scrutiny.
The Supreme Court has stressed that the NEET process needs to be institutionalised, with a permanent structure, permanent staff and dedicated organisational verticals rather than excessive dependence on deputation. The court has also indicated that it wants to examine the NTA’s upgraded facilities.
The emphasis on permanence addresses one of the central issues raised by the earlier reform process: an examination agency handling millions of candidates needs institutional expertise that remains within the organisation.
The Radhakrishnan report had similarly argued for stronger internal capacity and reduced dependence on outside agencies for critical examination functions. It proposed dedicated organisational verticals covering areas such as testing infrastructure, information security, vigilance and forensics, and research and development.
What Is the Nilekani Panel Looking At?
The task force is broader than a single NEET security review.
Its mandate covers examinations conducted by the NTA and includes the use of technology, examination infrastructure, security, transparency and institutional reliability. The panel includes technology, space, intelligence, education, academic and logistics expertise.
Its members include:
- Nandan Nilekani, chairman
- S Somanath, former ISRO chairman
- Tapan Deka, former Intelligence Bureau director
- V Kamakoti, IIT Madras director
- Anita Karwal, former education secretary
- Amrit Lal Meena, logistics expert
The group is expected to assess existing systems and recommend a wider reform framework for the NTA.
The Bigger Question: What Changes Will Students Actually See?
For NEET aspirants, committee reports and institutional restructuring can sound distant from everyday preparation.
But the eventual reforms could directly affect how candidates register, authenticate their identities, enter examination centres, receive question papers, take the test and have their responses processed.
A move toward CBT, for example, would require candidates to sit examinations in secure computer centres rather than relying on the traditional nationwide pen-and-paper model. AI-based monitoring could change how examination irregularities are detected. Stronger identity verification could affect the candidate-authentication process.
None of these changes has yet become a final nationwide NEET reform package.
The Nilekani panel has not submitted its final report, and the government has not announced that every recommendation from either committee will be implemented in full.
That distinction matters for students planning future attempts.
Why the Radhakrishnan-Nilekani Link Matters
The consultation between the two reform exercises signals a shift from creating another standalone set of recommendations toward examining what has already been proposed and what still needs to change.
The Radhakrishnan Committee supplied a detailed blueprint after the 2024 controversy. The Nilekani task force is now examining the examination system in a new technological environment, after another NEET controversy and amid growing demands for institutional accountability.
The test for the latest reform exercise will ultimately be implementation.
For millions of students, confidence in an entrance examination is not created by the name of a committee or the sophistication of a technology platform. It is created when the same rules, safeguards and standards work reliably from the first registration form to the final result.
That is the larger challenge now facing the NTA.
And as the Nilekani panel prepares its next set of recommendations, the question is no longer whether the examination system needs reform. The question is how deeply that reform will reach — and whether the changes can finally make examination security a permanent institutional capability rather than a response to the latest crisis.
