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CBI flags lapses in National Testing Agency's NEET-UG paper-setting process

By CAShorts DeskPublished Sources: Hindustan Times; Outlook; PTI; National Herald; Pragativadi; PIB; PRS; Gazette of India; PMO

CBI flags lapses in National Testing Agency's NEET-UG paper-setting process
Illustration (AI-generated)

The Central Bureau of Investigation has told the Union Ministry of Education that the National Testing Agency let subject experts work at several paper-setting stages for NEET-UG 2026 and see the final question sets, officers said on 19 October 2026. It also found short CCTV backups and no frisking, and suggests a different expert for each stage.

Syllabus: Prelims · Polity & Governance; GS2 · Statutory & Regulatory Bodies; GS2 · Health, Education & Human Resources

Why this matters for UPSC

GS2 governance and education: Prelims can ask what the National Testing Agency is and what the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 provides; Mains, how examination bodies can be made leak-proof and accountable.

Why it matters

A NEET aspirant studies for a year or more for a single paper. When one expert can copy 135 questions onto chits and walk out with them, the exam has to be cancelled and lakhs of students sit it again, as happened in 2026. Tougher jail terms catch people after the damage is done; what stops a leak is the dull work of dividing jobs, searching people at the door and keeping camera records long enough to check. The CBI's suggestions are about that work. Whether the NTA adopts them decides whether students can trust that the same paper reaches everyone at the same moment, and the same lesson applies to every recruitment and entrance body in the country.

Prelims pointers

  • National Testing Agency: approved by the Union Cabinet in 2017 after the 2017-18 Budget speech; got a one-time Rs 25 crore grant, then to be self-financing.
  • NTA structure: chaired by an eminent educationist appointed by the education ministry, with a Board of Governors drawn from user institutions and nine verticals under the Director General.
  • Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 (No. 1 of 2024): all its offences are cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable (section 9).
  • Same Act, section 11: organised crime carries five to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of not less than one crore rupees.
  • Same Act, section 12: an officer not below Deputy Superintendent or Assistant Commissioner of Police investigates; the Central Government may refer a case to any Central Investigating Agency.
  • The 2024 Act's Schedule lists UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Boards, IBPS, central ministries' recruitment and the NTA.
  • Radhakrishnan committee: on its advice, the Ministry of Education constituted a High-Powered Steering Committee on 14 November 2024, chaired by K. Radhakrishnan, to monitor implementation.
  • CBI: set up by a Government of India resolution of 1 April 1963; its jurisdiction reaches a State only with that State's consent under section 6 of the 1946 Act.

Practise a UPSC-style question

With reference to the National Testing Agency (NTA), consider the following statements:

1. It was set up as a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

2. Its creation was first announced in the Union Budget speech of 2019-20.

3. Its chief executive is a Director General appointed by the Government.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. (a) 1 and 2 only
  2. (b) 2 and 3 only
  3. (c) 1 and 3 only
  4. (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer

Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only. The NTA is a registered society headed by a government-appointed Director General; the Budget year is wrong.

Statement 1: correct. The Union Cabinet approved the NTA in 2017 as a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

Statement 2: incorrect. The Finance Minister announced the NTA in the Budget speech of 2017-18, and the Cabinet approved it in November 2017.

Statement 3: correct. The Cabinet decision made the Director General, appointed by the Government, the NTA's CEO; an eminent educationist chairs it.

Eliminate: Statement 2 is wrong, since the Cabinet had approved the NTA in November 2017, before any 2019-20 Budget. Out: (a), (b), (d).

Trap: Near-miss figure. A later Budget year is offered for the announcement, close enough to the NTA's early years to look right.

Remember: NTA = Budget 2017-18 announcement, Cabinet 2017, society under the 1860 Act, CEO is the Director General.

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