Centre develops national CBT infrastructure plan for entrance exams

The Centre is actively working on a national examination-grade Computer-Based Testing (CBT) infrastructure strategy to facilitate the shift of entrance examinations to digital platforms, officials confirmed. The initiative follows the NEET paper leak incident earlier this year, which prompted the government to announce that the medical entrance examination will transition to CBT mode beginning next academic year.

While the plan is currently under active consideration, the Ministry of Education has indicated it will make a final decision only after receiving recommendations from the task force led by technology expert Nandan Nilekani, which has been tasked with comprehensively overhauling India's public examination systems.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) already administers several major entrance examinations in computer-based format, including JEE-Main for engineering, the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and UGC-NET and CSIR UGC-NET examinations. NEET has remained the primary medical entrance examination conducted in traditional pen-and-paper mode. Once the national CBT infrastructure framework is established, the government plans to migrate all entrance examinations to online delivery.

Education officials said the new infrastructure strategy aims to ensure a seamless and secure transition for millions of students who appear for these high-stakes competitive examinations annually.