Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has suggested doing away with traditional, pre-set question papers for competitive exams in India to eradicate paper leaks.
Speaking at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Delhi, Nilekani—who heads the government-appointed High-Powered Task Force (HPTF) on exam reforms—argued that fixed question papers create an economic incentive for illicit trade.
Instead, Nilekani proposed building a massive digital bank of questions. Under this dynamic framework, test papers would be generated using technology—such as AI—just minutes before an exam. He noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on implementing these reforms.
Furthermore, Nilekani advocated transitioning all public examinations to computer-based testing, leveraging India’s network of approximately 150,000 potential test centres.
The task force was constituted on July 27 following widespread student protests over the NEET-UG paper leak controversy, which led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Education Minister.
The panel is examining comprehensive structural, security, and governance overhauls for testing bodies like the National Testing Agency (NTA).
