Gaps galore in NTA paper setting process

THe cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 has renewed scrutiny of the subject Testing federal agency’s exam architecture — non simply its question-setting process, but the full chain from paper preparation to printing to last-mile delivery, each of which has, at different points, been identified as a leak vector. Where exactly the 2026 breach occurred remains under investigation, but insiders and a member of the government-appointed reform panel point to a shift in vulnerability: from downstream to upstream.How papers are set The question-setting process at NTA is among its most fortified operations, people aware of the process said. Separate panels of senior faculty from universities across the country are physically brought to NTA’s building in Delhi for a week. Before entering, they surrender mobile phones and all digital devices. All reference material — textbooks and academic resources — is provided within the premises. Security staff scan personnel at every entry and exit point.Each panel consists of a convenor and four subject experts — five members in total — who work in isolation from other panels and remain unaware of what questions are being set elsewhere. The panels do not produce the final question paper directly. Instead, each prepares a large pool of vetted questions. The final paper is then generated through algorithm-based randomisation, producing multiple sets so that adjacent candidates receive different versions. “Until the final generation stage, no one knows the exact paper composition,” a central university faculty member involved in NTA’s paper preparation said, requesting anonymity.A member of the K Radhakrishnan committee, which was constituted after the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, described the paper-setting process as “quite good” and highly secluded.The 2024 leak The NEET-UG 2024 breach was traced to the distribution chain — printing presses, strong-room storage, transportation, and last-mile handling of sealed question-paper packets. In response, NTA introduced sweeping reforms: GPS-enabled transport of confidential material with police escort, CCTV-linked central control rooms, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication, high-sensitivity metal-detector frisking, and real-time central monitoring. District-level coordination committees headed by District Collectors were established, and 94% of exam centres shifted to state government or government-owned buildings, the agency said in a press release dated May 2.The Radhakrishnan panel member said these measures have significantly tightened “midstream and downstream” processes — exam-centre operations, invigilation, and logistics. The downstream chain, in other words, is harder to breach than it was in 2024.Where 2026 may have gone wrongThat hardening of downstream processes has shifted investigative scrutiny toward what the panel member described as the “upstream” stage — the question pool, paper-setting, and backend access controls. “If a leak occurred, it likely happened upstream — at the higher-level question-pool stage,” the panel member said. He added that the breach could have occurred either within NTA or through external actors, and that any possible nexus between insiders and outsiders would need to be investigated by the probe agencies.The faculty member who described the paper-setting process pointed to a specific vulnerability: the contractual workers involved in technical processes such as question processing, typing, and translation. “A large number of questions from the guess paper appeared in the actual paper,” the faculty member said, suggesting these personnel “might be behind the leak.”The staffing problem that reform has not solvedBoth sources pointed to the same institutional fault line: NTA’s dependence on non-permanent staff.“We had recommended a complete restructuring with more permanent staff and reduced reliance on contract workers. But NTA is yet to adhere to this recommendation,” the panel member said.NTA DG Abhishek Singh — who took charge on April 1, 2026 — said the agency will announce the re-examination schedule within 10 days. He did not respond to HT’s queries for comment.