Firm that handled CBSE OSM says no glitch in system, complaints ‘one of a kind'

AMid mounting unfavorable judgment o'er the exchange room of Secondary training’s (CBSE) new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, VSN Raju, CEO of Hyderabad-based Coempt Edu Tech, has defended the digital evaluation platform, saying the complaints flagged so far are isolated and not indicative of a broader technological failure.In an interview with The News Minute, Raju said allegations that the system was riddled with issues were “absolutely wrong”, even as students continued to raise concerns over blurred answer sheets, mismatched copies and repeated portal crashes.“It's not that the entire system is wrong or that so many issues have come up. That's absolutely a wrong allegation,” Raju told The News Minute, describing the complaints as “one of its kind”.CBSE introduced OSM for Class 12 board examinations in 2026, digitising answer-book evaluation in a move the board said would reduce manual intervention and eliminate totaling errors. However, the rollout has triggered controversy after several students alleged discrepancies in answer sheets provided by the board.Vedant Shrivastava case ‘human error’, says RajuThe issue gained momentum after Delhi student Vedant Shrivastava alleged that the Physics answer sheet shared by CBSE was not his. Students have also complained about swapped pages, blurred scans and difficulty accessing answer booklets.Responding to the Vedant Shrivastava case, Raju told the media outlet that Coempt’s preliminary findings pointed to “human error” during scanning and not a fault in the technology.“We have identified the location, who had done the scanning, and 100%, we identified that technologically there is no error. We are currently investigating,” he said, adding that he could “boldly say” there was no technological issue in the case.Raju also said that around 95% of students who applied for copies of their answer booklets had already received them and maintained that the scanners used by the company were industry standard.On complaints over blurred answer sheets, Raju said CBSE was addressing concerns and students would receive their copies soon, though he declined to specify a timeline.Rahul Gandhi attacks CBSE over Coempt contractThe controversy has also drawn political attention. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently questioned why Coempt Edutech was awarded the CBSE contract despite what he described as the company’s “murky past” linked to Telangana examination controversies.CBSE rejected Gandhi’s allegations, saying the contract was awarded after following due process under the General Financial Rules. According to the board, the request for proposal for digital evaluation of answer books was floated in August 2025 and the contract was awarded to the qualified bidder after scrutiny.The News Minute reported that the final stage of the tender process was floated in November 2025 and that Tata Consultancy Services and Coempt were the two companies that fulfilled the technical criteria.Hacker claims involved ‘testing server’Coempt Edutech, headquartered in Hyderabad, describes itself as an examination technology firm with over 25 years of experience in digital evaluation and answer-book digitisation. The company says it handles examination processes for over two million students annually.Raju also addressed claims by a 19-year-old ethical hacker who alleged he had breached the platform and exposed vulnerabilities. According to him, the main CBSE server had not been compromised.“What he managed to hack was a server used for testing, which is never used for any client. It’s used for internal purposes, with dummy tests, and has public access,” he told The News Minute.Coempt denies limited pilot-run allegationsRaju further rejected media reports claiming that CBSE conducted only a limited pilot before rolling out OSM nationwide. He said several dry runs had been conducted from mid-January across the country involving thousands of teachers.“In a day, up to 40,000 faculty members had come online and had conducted a dry run evaluation,” he said.Telangana exam controversy resurfacesThe company has also faced renewed scrutiny over its past association with Telangana’s 2019 intermediate examination controversy, when over 3.8 lakh students failed and more than 20 students died by suicide amid allegations of evaluation and administrative errors.At the time, the software provider involved was Globarena Technologies, which later changed its name to Coempt Edu Tech. Company records cited by The News Minute show the name change took place within months of the controversy.Asked about the change in name, Raju denied any attempt to distance the company from the controversy.“We changed our name, all our clients know this, and I am still the CEO. We are not hiding,” he told The News Minute, while also noting that both the High Court and Supreme Court had cleared the company in litigation related to the Telangana case.The Supreme Court had observed in 2019 that only 1,183 of the 3.8 lakh failed students were later declared passed, amounting to an evaluation error rate of 0.16%, and rejected pleas seeking reevaluation and criminal action against the company.