Former ISRO Chief to Head Panel Formed to Reform National Testing Agency

Delhi: The Ministry of Education, on Saturday, said it has constituted a high-level committee of experts under the chairmanship of Dr K Radhakrishnan, former Chairman of ISRO and Chairman BoG, IIT Kanpur, to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The Committee to make recommendations on Reform in the mechanism of the examination process, improvement in Data Security protocols and structure and functioning of NTA, it further stated. The Committee will submit its report to the Ministry within two months.

This comes days after NTA cancelled UGC-NET after its question paper was leaked and amid controversy over the irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam 2024.

Members of Committee

Dr K Radhakrishnan has been appointed as the Chairman of the committee. The other members include Dr Randeep Guleria, former Director of AIIMS Delhi; Prof BJ Rao, Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Hyderabad; Prof Ramamurthy K, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras; Pankaj Bansal, Co-Founder of People Strong and Board Member of Karmayogi Bharat; Prof. Aditya Mittal, Dean of Student Affairs at IIT Delhi; and Govind Jaiswal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Education, who will serve as the Member Secretary. 

Role of Committee 

The panel seven expert panel has been tasked to analyse the end-to-end examination process and suggest measures to improve the efficiency of the system. It will also conduct a thorough review of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)/Protocols of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The panel will evaluate the existing data security processes and protocols of NTA and recommend measures for its improvement. 

It will also examine existing security protocols related to the paper-setting and other processes for different examinations and make recommendations to enhance robustness of system.

The Committee will provide recommendations on the organisational structure and functioning of the NTA as well.