Following weeks of mounting pressure over paper leaks and widespread student protests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Sunday the setup of a high-powered task force led by Infosys co-founder and former UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani to overhaul India’s public examination system.
The move comes as the central government seeks to restore credibility and public trust in competitive assessments nationwide following intense backlash and high-level fallout over the NEET paper leak row, including the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Addressing students through a video message shared across social media platforms, the Prime Minister highlighted the immediate actions taken against perpetrators of examination fraud before turning his focus toward long-term structural overhaul.
“The Government of India is continuously taking various measures for the future of students. Those who tampered with the students’ future are languishing in jail. We have already established fast-track courts. We are also moving towards enacting new legislation in Parliament that incorporates stringent legal provisions,” PM Modi said.
Emphasising that legal deterrence must be coupled with technological modernization, he added: “However, we must look to the future. Our examination system needs to be reliable and transparent, and it must make maximum use of technology.”
To execute this vision, the Centre has turned to Nilekani, the technology architect best known for building India’s biometric identity framework, Aadhaar, and chairing tech giant Infosys. The newly formed task force will analyze systemic vulnerabilities, evaluate the integration of secure digital technologies, and lay down a roadmap for leak-proof public examinations.
“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,” PM Modi said.
Beyond setting up the Nilekani-led committee, the Centre is moving to tighten statutory frameworks through proposed amendments to the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act. The legislation aims to introduce time-bound investigations, fast-track judicial trials, and significantly harsher criminal penalties for organized paper leaks and institutional exam malpractices.
The task force is slated to begin its assessment immediately, with its recommendations expected to shape the protocols for all major upcoming public and competitive examinations across the country.
Joining Nilekani on the task force is a distinguished cohort of leaders spanning technology, security, administration, and logistics:
- S. Somanath, Former ISRO Chairman
- Tapan Deka, Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director
- V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras
- Anita Karwal, Former Education Secretary
- Amrit Lal Meena, Logistics Expert
Together, the committee will evaluate systemic vulnerabilities, design secure digital frameworks, and establish end-to-end operational protocols to safeguard the integrity of high-stakes tests.
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