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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third reel on the evening of July 27 announced a High Powered Task Force on “revamping examinations by NTA [National Testing Agency].” The task force was announced by him bypassing the recently appointed education minister Pralhad Joshi and with no consultation with either the opposition parties or youth protestors who dragged Dharmedra Pradhan out of office.

The very existence of the NTA which has deeply centralised competitive examinations in India has been contentious. But it is not known if this most recent committee will go into why the NTA exists at all.

A committee headed by a former ISRO chairman, Dr K. Radhakrishnan was appointed by the Modi government two years ago in June 2024 after NEET and other examination paper leaks rocked the country and BJP suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha elections. The High-Level Committee of Experts was mandated to “ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations.” It submitted its report and while its recommendations were accepted, there was no implementation. The committee had recommended “restructuring the NTA into a more accountable body, shifting toward technology-driven examination systems, reducing dependence on physical paper transport, exploring hybrid models with encrypted digital transmission and on-site printing, and moving to multi-stage examinations.”

The final report of the committee appears to have been pulled down from the site. You can check here.

Now, another former ISRO chairman finds himself in the committee appointed two years on. 

Who are the other members? 

Nandan Nilekani, founder of Infosys and Aadhaar (head)

Nandan Nilekani is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur who is the co-founder and current non-executive chairman of the IT giant Infosys. Beyond his corporate career, Nilekani has positioned himself as the chief architect of India’s digital state, while operating as an unelected technocrat. His wife, Rohini, heads Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and is a major supporter of numerous civil society groups in India. 

In 2009, he was appointed the founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, holding the rank of a Cabinet Minister, to roll out Aadhaar, a........

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