Senior IAS Officer Mandeep K Bhandari Named CBSE Chairperson After OSM Evaluation Row

New Delhi: The Central government on Friday appointed senior bureaucrat Mandeep K Bhandari as the new chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), according to an official order issued by the Ministry of Personnel.

Bhandari, a 2001-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AGMUT cadre (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories), is currently serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared his appointment to the CBSE post as part of a wider bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre.

The development comes in the backdrop of recent concerns surrounding the board’s OSM (On-Screen Marking) evaluation process.

About the OSM Evaluation Row

The leadership change reportedly followed complaints from students and parents after the Class 12 results, including alleged discrepancies in scanned answer sheets (such as mismatches in handwriting), technical glitches on portals, blurred or missing pages, issues with re-evaluation and verification processes. The digital on-screen marking system had been introduced to improve transparency and speed, but it drew significant scrutiny, including cyber-related concerns and political attention.

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