In a significant move aimed at strengthening the public examination system, the Centre has approved the appointment of five officers to the National Testing Agency (NTA) under the Department of Higher Education. With the latest appointments, the number of directors appointed to the NTA has risen to five, while the number of joint directors has increased to four since March 2025.
IRS officer Anshuman Sharma, a 2005-batch officer, has been appointed Joint Secretary. IRS officer Sathiya S, a 2011-batch officer; Prasanna Venkatesh V, an IAS officer of the 2012 batch; and Ravi Kumar Singh, a 2012-batch officer, have been appointed as directors. Amit Samdariya, an IRS officer of the 2016 batch, has been appointed Joint Director.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal for the appointment of Anshuman Sharma for a tenure of five years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, by temporarily upgrading a vacant post of Deputy Secretary/Director to the level of Joint Secretary in the NTA for an initial period of two years.
Earlier, in 2025, Pawan Kumar Sharma and Vijay Kumar Vinayakrao Patil were appointed as directors, while Ashish Gupta was appointed as Joint Director on March 27, 2025.
On May 16, 2026, Akash Jain and Aditya Rajendra Bhojgadhiya were appointed as Joint Directors, while Anuja Bapat and Ruchita Vij were appointed as Joint Secretaries.
The fresh appointments are part of an overhaul of the agency's examination system. They align with the recommendations of the October 2024 Radhakrishnan Committee to restructure the NTA by strengthening the testing agency's permanent workforce. The government has created 16 new posts, eight each at the director and joint director levels.
The Education Ministry, in a statement issued on August 18, said that the NTA has undertaken a major revamp of its examination team, with 600 experts removed and new experts being brought on board, following directions from Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi to strengthen the agency's examination systems.
At a review meeting on the NTA, Joshi directed officials to ensure that all necessary security and infrastructure arrangements were in place for the smooth and secure conduct of examinations.
As part of the overhaul, a four-tier system for checking question papers was introduced to strengthen scrutiny and reduce the possibility of errors.
The Director General had said that 20 to 25 officials would be inducted into the NTA over the next two to three weeks. The agency's further recruitment and induction plan was also reviewed.
The NTA's office was also proposed to be shifted to new premises on a priority basis, with security arrangements to be strengthened through the deployment of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) teams.
The NTA had also advertised 10 new professional leadership positions, including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, General Manager (Test Security), and General Manager (Research and Development and Psychometrics).