CBSE OSM Controversy: The Hyderabad-based edtech company, Coempt Edu Teck Private Limited, has emerged as the focal point of controversy following widespread glitches and student complaints surrounding the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) newly rolled-out On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 examinations in 2026.
The company secured the board's digital evaluation contract just 66 days before the system was rolled out nationwide, officials confirmed to NDTV. As per reports, the board awarded the OSM contract to Coempt Edu Teck on December 5, 2025, and on February 9 the board announced the full-fledged rollout of the OSM.
What Is Coempt Edu Tech?
"Coempt Edu Teck is a leading EdTech company with over 25 years of progressive experience in providing end-to-end examination solutions to certificate awarding bodies," the company's official website claimed.
VSN Raju, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)of Coempt, is an electronics and communication engineer from the University of Madras and holds an experience of about two decades in sales, marketing and operations.
The educational technology and digital examination firm was previously known as Globarena Technologies. According to reports, the company also came under fire in 2019, when discrepancies emerged in the Telangana Intermediate (Plus 2) examination results.
How Coempt Was Selected?
Officials told NDTV that Coempt Edu Teck was selected on the basis of quoting the lowest price among technically qualified bidders and was given the contract after two earlier bidding attempts failed to produce a successful vendor. The officials stated that Coempt and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) both qualified in the final round and held Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 certification, which is the highest level of process maturity certification, at the time of the contract award.
"In the third round during the financial bid, Coempt had quoted Rs 24.75 including taxes for an answer sheet while TCS had quoted around Rs 65 including taxes. The difference was huge. We need to award it to the lowest bidder only and hence COEMPT was selected," an official said.
What Coempt Promises?
According to the company's official website, Coempt's Onmark solution is designed to empower certification bodies with a secure, scalable, and intelligent platform that revolutionises answer book scanning (uncut) and digital evaluation. "Onmark solution eliminates manual inefficiencies and ensures fraud-proof evaluation of answer books," it added.
Based on the official website of the vendor, it claims the following:
- Secure upload and storage of scanned answer booklets
- High-resolution display with zoom/pan/rotate functions
- Double marking for critical assessments
- Instant mark calculation and aggregation
- Real-time monitoring of examiner performance
Controversy Around Contract
The company behind the CBSE's digital evaluation platform has come under scrutiny following the revelation of its controversial past. The opposition has also questioned the board for awarding the contract to Coempt, alleging that despite qualifying in the third round, TCS lost the contract to COEMPT.
A Class 12 student, Sarthak Sidhant, raised serious concerns over the OSM tendering process, highlighting discrepancies that point towards preferential treatment of a particular service provider. Sarthak Sidhant shared his findings in a detailed blog comparing multiple CBSE tender documents.
He appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports on Tuesday to present his findings regarding the implementation of the system and alleged irregularities in the OSM tendering process.
How CBSE Defends Coempt
CBSE officials also defended the selection of Coempt amid allegations raised by opposition leaders, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, over the company's previous work in Telangana.
An official said litigation related to the firm's post-examination management work in the state had been examined by courts and that "nothing unusual" had been found.
Referring to controversy surrounding the company's work in Telangana in 2019, the official said the High Court had found no wrongdoing by the firm and that a Special Leave Petition subsequently filed in the Supreme Court was dismissed.
