- There has been no leak in JEE exams, says IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti
- Preserving the sanctity of that exam has been no mean task, he indicated
- The Radhakrishnan Committee, Kamakoti said, came up with 250-plus robust recommendations
There has been no leak in the JEE exams and elements from that process could be incorporated in other competitive exams to ensure transparency and a lack of leaks, IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti told NDTV today.
Kamakoti has been part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's six-member exam reform task force formed after weeks of protests over the paper leak in the medical entrance exam. They carry huge expectation that they will be able to plug the holes that have compromised India's examination system for years.
Holding up the engineering exam as an example, Kamakoti told NDTV's Padmaja Joshi today that it has grown manifold in terms of examinees.
"When I wrote a JEE in 1985, there were 5000 people who wrote it. Today, we have 1.5 million aspirants for that examination," Kamakoti said.
Preserving the sanctity of that exam has been no mean task, he indicated.
Read: 'Human Integrity, Not Tech, Is Main Issue': IIT Madras Director On Paper Leaks
"Over a period of time, we have seen the transition from a paper and pen subject to subjective papers to optical sensors, recognising sheets. And then we moved to image processing and then we have come to computer-based testing. And so we have seen all the forms, we have adopted so many technologies. We have also seen usage of other type of technologies. So if you have 1.5 million people, identity checking, biometric, and also hand and metal detectors, how do we stop people from bringing devices inside in this age of electronic devices, etc. So many, many new technologies we have adopted," he added.
This year's leak of exam papers, he said happened since the lessons learnt in 2024 were forgotten and the recommendations of the Ranganathan Committee were not implemented.
The Radhakrishnan Committee, Kamakoti said, came up with 250-plus robust recommendations.
"To be frank, in NEET 2026, the NTA did follow many of those recommendations... That's why in the May 3 NEET, after the paper left the NTA premises, it went for printing, it went to boxes, it was put in trunks, it was distributed, finally it reached the hands of the candidate on the day of the examination on the 20th," he added.
Read: 'A Breaking Point': An Open Letter To Nandan Nilekani On How To Fix India's Exams
But the leak, he added, did not happen in any of those places. "It happened before the paper left NTA," as the CBI pointed out, he said.
The trouble was that in any operation, "there is a root of trust," he said.
"So, the root of trust in this case has failed and that is the reason in spite of the great effort put by Radhakrishnan committee and the NTA's effort to implement many of those, the leak has happened this year," he added.
