NTA needs urgent overhaul and online NEET-UG after leaks, parliamentary panel says

What the parliamentary panel recommended

A parliamentary standing committee has called for a sweeping overhaul of the National Testing Agency (NTA), recommending that the NEET-UG medical entrance examination be moved to an online, computer-based format to prevent paper leaks.

The report, presented to the Rajya Sabha by the 31-member panel on education, women, children, youth and sports chaired by Congress MP Mukul Wasnik, argued that traditional paper-and-pen examinations leave critical security gaps. The committee urged the agency to shift major entrance tests to computer-based testing (CBT), where encrypted question papers are transmitted directly to exam centres moments before the test begins, eliminating early physical printing, transport, and storage.

To prevent question papers from leaking during preparation, the panel proposed building large, continuously updated digital question banks. These would be curated by experts from premier academic institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Under the proposed system, final papers would be drawn digitally close to the examination time, and the experts responsible for vetting them would remain in strict isolation until tests conclude.

Institutional gaps and staff shortages inside the NTA

The report exposed severe internal weaknesses within the agency responsible for testing roughly 1.2 crore candidates every year. The NTA currently leaves 16 of its 39 sanctioned permanent posts vacant — a vacancy rate of 41 per cent.

The panel highlighted that the post of director general was held as an additional charge for nearly two years between June 2024 and April 2026. Meanwhile, contractual staff increased from 39 in 2023–24 to 76 in 2025–26, alongside 136 outsourced personnel. The committee warned that relying heavily on short-term deputation and private contractors hampers institutional memory, operational security, and technical expertise.

The scale of legal disputes facing the testing body was also highlighted by its 2024–25 annual report, which recorded 474 court cases, including 356 concerning NEET-UG 2024 alone.

A national registry for blacklisted vendors

To prevent compromised contractors from operating across state and central testing systems, the committee recommended establishing a centralised digital registry of penalised vendors.

At present, service providers, technology partners, or frisking agencies penalised by one state or testing body can still secure contracts with other autonomous institutions. The proposed registry would track defaulting companies, active police investigations, and individual executive directors to stop tainted firms from re-emerging under new corporate names. Access would be mandatory for major bodies, including the UPSC and SSC, with listed firms automatically disqualified nationwide.

What happens next

To expand online testing capacity, the committee suggested using NTA's accumulated revenue surplus of ₹590 crore to build a network of 1,000 secure, government-owned testing centres, ensuring at least one per district. It also advised utilising mid-sized IT labs in public universities, polytechnics, and government engineering colleges.

The panel further suggested that the education ministry explore structural options for future medical tests, including multi-session exam schedules, reasonable age limits, attempt caps, and a potential two-stage NEET-UG examination structure.