NTA aims to export Indian exam system as global ‘digital public good’: DG Abhishek Singh

NEW DELHI: The National Testing Agency (NTA) is looking beyond India's borders, envisioning a future where its indigenous examination framework serves as a scalable digital public good for other nations, including the BRICS bloc, according to NTA Director General Abhishek Singh.

Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Singh outlined the agency's dual roadmap, consolidating domestic systems to ensure error-free, fair assessments while laying the groundwork for international technology sharing and cross-border examination services.

Before offering solutions internationally, the NTA's immediate operational priority remains strengthening its core infrastructure within India.

"Right now we are trying to consolidate our own testing framework. So first is to improve the systems and strengthen the processes within India so that we are able to conduct examinations without any error and in a completely fair manner. And once we have done that, the way we are visualising it is that we should be able to create something that can become like a digital public good that can be adopted by other countries, including the BRICS countries," said Abhishek Singh.

Addressing ongoing security challenges, the NTA DG emphasised that artificial intelligence (AI) and biometric verification are central to the agency's fraud-prevention strategy.

"We are currently looking at the use of AI for conducting not only testing but also fraud prevention, trying to look at logs, trying to look at data, trying to look at analytics in order to ensure that examinations are conducted without any error or without any problems," he said.

In candidate verification, Singh highlighted India's robust digital infrastructure as a solved problem, "We have Aadhaar based and face authentication method, which you use to verify there. So that is not a problem. With this Aadhaar database and the face authentication system, we have solved that problem and we are using that face authentication framework in almost every examination that we conduct."

NTA systematically utilizes biometric and Aadhaar-backed facial authentication at exam centres to prevent impersonation and fraud.

Singh reaffirmed that pen-and-paper formats are being phased out in favour of Computer-Based Testing (CBT), including major national entrances like NEET. (ANI)

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