The National Testing Agency, under fire over the lapses in the conduct of NEET and UGC-NET, is gearing up to conduct on Sunday a retest for the medical entrance exam for 1,563 candidates who were earlier awarded grace marks to make up for the loss of time at six centres.
The Delhi High Court has asked a review committee to examine the blocking of the Cockroach Janta Party's X account, refusing to order its immediate unblocking but allowing the party's founder to appear before the committee.
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre, the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others on petitions seeking the cancellation of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024 (NEET-UG 2024), and a court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam.
They said the agency is also taking steps to bring under its ambit cases registered in various states by the police.
The top court said since the remit of the panel has been expanded, the committee would submit its report by September 30 on various measures to rectify deficiencies in the examination system.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has identified 144 candidates who had allegedly paid to get National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) leaked and solved papers hours before they were to take the examination for admissions in medical colleges, officials said on Monday.
The petition, filed by 20 students who had appeared for the medical entrance exam, has also sought a direction to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and others to conduct the test afresh.
The plea challenges the alleged award of grace marks on account of loss of time apparently due to several reasons. The petition is yet to be listed for hearing.
The agency is under criticism amid allegations of irregularities and inflation of marks in the crucial medical entrance exam.
It added that in any examination, there are competing rights that are created whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any unfair means must not also be jeopardised.
The Congress's student and youth wings took to the streets in the national capital on Thursday over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams, with NSUI members forcefully entering the NTA headquarters and locking its office, and the IYC staging a huge protest at Jantar Mantar.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a fresh case in connection with alleged impersonation by four National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), 2024 candidates in Bihar's Purnea, officials said on Wednesday.
Congress leader Ajoy Kumar alleged the Centre gambled with these competitive examinations by asking the NTA to conduct those.
Observing that a re-test has to be ordered if sanctity of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 is 'lost', the Supreme Court on Monday sought information from the National Testing Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about timing of question paper leak and duration between leak and actual test.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two persons including a key accused in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) paper leak case who allegedly stole the paper from a National Testing Agency's trunk in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, officials said Tuesday.
Rao suggested changes should also be brought in the evaluation methods and pitched for introduction of an open-book examination system for competitive examinations designed to test the candidates' "competence, aptitude, attitude and Intelligence Quotient".
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday made its first arrests in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, taking two people in custody in Patna while three candidates in Gujarat who had allegedly solicited help to clear the exam recorded their statements with the probe agency, officials said.
The Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) had on Thursday told the Supreme Court they had cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses.
National Testing Agency (NTA) officials reported that 813 of the 1,563 candidates appeared for the retest while the others opted for the marks without the grace.
Yadvendu claimed that he demanded Rs 40 lakh from each aspirant, including his nephew Anurag Yadav, for providing the leaked question paper on May 4, a day before the exam.
The top court, however, refused to stay the counselling of successful candidates for admissions to Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Dental Surgery and other courses.
Observing that students have to labour hard while preparing for these examinations, the apex court said the litigation pertaining to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate)-2024 examination ought not be treated as adversarial.
The Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit, which is probing the alleged National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, on Saturday claimed to have obtained reference question papers of the test conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) and planned to compare these with documents recovered from a flat in Patna during a search operation last month.
'The NEET-PG is the only exam for admission to MD, MS and PG Diploma courses.' 'Many doctors take time off from work to prepare for it, while others study during their long hospital shifts.'
The notification of the Act comes just a day after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was asked when the legislation would be implemented. The minister had said the law ministry was framing the rules.
'I do not think the scam is limited to 1,563 students. The number is too low to have caused such an inflation in the marks'
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a Zilla Parishad school teacher from Latur in Maharashtra and registered a case against four persons after it emerged that a racket was being operated to help NEET students willing to pay money to crack the exam, police said on Monday.
The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
The NTA denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres were some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEET-PG) 2024 is likely to be held mid-August, sources said on Tuesday.
Here is an explainer on the functioning of the seven-year-old body.
The credibility of the examination system has also come under question, they said.
'They made so many toppers in NEET that automatically the paper leak issue got exposed.' 'The first mistake they did was announcing 67 toppers in NEET. No way this figure was possible.' 'The maximum numbers of toppers that you can have are two or three at best every year.'
Sanjeev Kumar alias Sanjeev 'Mukhiya', an alleged kingpin behind the NEET paper leak, was not only minting money but wanted to become an MP or MLA.
Parliament is set to witness heated debates on a range of issues like the NEET paper leak row, the Agnipath initiative and inflation when both houses reconvene on Monday.
The Centre on Monday made public the rules under the recently-notified anti-paper leak law, mandating the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to prepare norms, standards and guidelines for the computer-based tests among others.
NEET is a court-ordered examination, supposedly aimed at meritocracy. However, over the past years when the incumbent Narendra Modi government at the Centre began implementing it, it took on political and casteist colours, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
As many as 57 arms, 318 pieces of ammunition and five bombs have been recovered in Manipur, taking the total number of recovered arms and ammunition to 868 and 11,518, respectively, security advisor to Manipur government Kuldiep Singh said on Wednesday.
Now, every state election -- first up, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year, then Delhi in January and Bihar in September next year -- will be seen by his followers for evidence of his recovery, and by rivals of sharpening decline, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'The Indian private sector knows how to build and run educational organisations, what is needed is a large dose of removal of restrictions.' 'Government restrictions hold back universities in India from launching medical schools,' argue Ajay Shah and Vijay Kelkar.
