Aadhaar man Nilekani to reform NTA exams

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced the constitution of a high-powered task force, headed by Nandan Nilekani, Infosys co-founder and the architect of Aadhaar, to reform examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The task force will give suggestions for maximising the use of technology for setting up a robust and transparent examination system, he said in a video message posted on his Instagram handle.

A multidisciplinary group of domain experts will be part of the task force.

Besides Nilekani, its other members are former chairman of ISRO S Somanath, former director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka, director of IIT Chennai V Kamakoti, former education secretary Anita Karwal and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena.

The prime minister’s announcement came a day after the 36-day agitation, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), ended with the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the Education Minister.

“A high-powered task force on examination reforms under the leadership of Nandan Nilekani constituted,” Modi said.

The prime minister said the government will work on the suggestions of the task force to establish a foolproof examination system.

It will help revamp the NTA examinations, especially technology perspective and for structural reforms in the system, he said.

Nilekani was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, which developed Aadhaar, the largest biometric identification system in the world.

He is also known as the man behind the UPI origin story, having led the group that had conceived the idea back in 2012.