Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced the formation of a high-level task force led by Nandan Nilekani to prepare a report on examination reforms.
This announcement comes a day before the Union government moves a bill in Parliament to implement harsher punishment and a harsher punishment of up to $10 basic rules for those convicted of leaking papers.
Read also | Dharmendra Pradhan resigns as Education Minister amid massive protests over paper leak
In a video message, the Prime Minister said that while the establishment of fast-track courts to try cases of examination irregularities was announced on a video posted on X on Thursday and the government is preparing to move a bill, a task force is being formed with a focus on future and comprehensive examination reforms.
The video comes a day after former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned after weeks of widespread protests led by the Sarsour Janta Party.
Read also | ‘Dharmendra Pradhan offered to resign on first day of protests’: BJP leader makes surprising claim
According to government sources, a multidisciplinary group of domain experts to help revamp NTA exams, especially from a technological perspective, and bring about structural reforms in the system, will include former ISRO chief S. Somnath, former IB director Tapan Deka, IIT Chennai director V. Kamakoti, former education minister Anita Karwal, and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena.
This is the first time that popular street protests have led to the resignation of a federal minister in the National Democratic Alliance government during his three terms. Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has been given additional charge of the Education Ministry.
On Sunday, Joshi took additional charge of the Education Department at Kartaviya Bhavan. The officials said that the President chaired a meeting in which he reviewed the implementation of various plans and other initiatives of the School Education Department and the Ministry of Higher Education.
