NEET: Why have question papers? Nandan Nilekani suggests last-minute paper generation to prevent leaks
New Delhi: India should do away with traditional question papers to prevent paper leaks in high-stakes exams, including the National Eligibility-Entrance Test (NEET), which millions of students and job seekers take, suggested Nandan Nilekani, one of India’s prominent technology leaders.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026, in New Delhi, Nilekani said the paper leak is a "solvable" issue that requires technology. "Why do we need to have a question paper?" Nilekani asked, pointing out that "The moment you have a question paper, it becomes an economic incentive for that to be sold."
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"If you look at it systematically and go to root causes of why it’s happening and use technology to solve it... they are solvable issues," he was quoted as saying by The Telegraph India.
He further noted that "these are all systemic issues which we will address in our committee. And I think the Prime Minister is very keen to implement our suggestions."
According to a PTI report, Nilekani, who heads the task force set up in July after the NEET-UG paper leak, has recommended building a vast digital bank of questions and using technology to generate papers shortly before an exam, reducing opportunities for leaks. He also called for a broader shift to computer-based testing through a network of examination centers.
Nilekani suggested that one way to stop paper leaks is to do away with a fixed question paper and generate it from a large question bank only at the last minute.
"The question then becomes, why do we need to have something called a question paper? Because the moment you have a question paper, then that creates an economic incentive for that to be sold," he said.
"The way to do that is to really have a massive bank of questions. And only at the last minute generate the question paper for that day. And therefore, then the question of a question paper goes away, and there is no economic incentive for that," he further added.
When asked whether AI could generate exam question paper on the day of the test, Nilekani answered in the affirmative and he also mentioned that the panel was also looking at moving all exams to computer-based testing.
“The prime minister is very keen to implement our suggestions,” Nilekani said. He also said that India has about 150,000 locations that could potentially support a computer-based testing system.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July tapped Nilekani to chair a high-powered panel on exam reforms after repeated paper leaks eroded public confidence in the country’s testing system.
After the NEET paper leak earlier this year, which led to nationwide outrage, the Centre announced that the medical entrance exam, NEET-UG, will be conducted in CBT mode from 2027 instead of a pen-and-paper-based test.
The proposed shift is currently being examined by the high-powered task force after the Centre had already told the Supreme Court that migration of NEET to CBT was under “active consideration with the final decision to be taken after recommendations of the high-level task force and stakeholder consultations.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported back in August this year that the centre, in a compliance affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in the NEET 2026 paper leak case, said the final decision will be adopted after considering, and with the benefit of, the recommendations of the High-Powered Task Force under the chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani. The panel is yet to submit its report.
Recently, a Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, mentioned in its 382nd report on "Reforms and Strengthening of the National Testing Agency (NTA)" that investment in question banks is the most viable defense against paper leaks in the long run. It observed that repeated use of the same question sets or the practice of having examiners set new question papers every year can be a risk to the integrity of the examination process.
Accordingly, the panel recommended that NTA should invest in building a large, diverse, and continuously updated question bank which can be drawn on to set papers without the advance knowledge of the question-setters.
"The Committee notes that in the CBT format, question papers no longer have to be printed and transported to examination centers. Therefore, there is no compulsion to set question papers long in advance. Accordingly, the final question papers should be set very close to the examination, with questions drawn from the question bank using digital tools and only vetted by experts. Finally, the Committee emphasizes strict quarantine and sequestering of the final paper-vetters until the conclusion of the examination," mentioned the report.
"The Committee further recommends that the NTA must rely on bona fide experts from our most renowned educational institutions – including IITs, AIIMSs, IIMs, etc. - to develop its question banks and for translation. The NTA must also develop a system to check the track record of said experts to establish their integrity and to rule out any conflict of interest (e.g., owners or faculty of private coaching centers, family members giving the exam, etc.) before recruiting them," it added.
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