Pradeep Singh Kharola Has Been Assigned The Additional Charge of NTA DG

The Director General of the National Testing Agency, Subodh Kumar Singh, was removed from the post on June 22, amid controversy over irregularities in exams. Subodh Kumar Singh’s services were put on a “compulsory wait” in Department of Personnel and Training, the government said in a letter. India Trade Promotion Organisation Chairman and MD Pradeep Singh Kharola was assigned additional charge of NTA DG till appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders.

Who is Pradeep Singh Kharola, new DG of NTA?

Pradeep Singh Kharola is currently the Chairman and Managing Director of India Trade Promotion and has been appointed as the Director General of National Testing Agency as an additional charge. Kharola is a 1985 batch IAS officer.

Expert committee formed by the Centre

The Union Ministry of Education has constituted a high-level committee of experts to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations. Dr K Radhakrishnan, Former Chairman, ISRO and Chairman BoG, IIT Kanpur, will head the panel of 7 experts. The other constituent members include Dr. Randeep Guleria, Former Director, AIIMS Delhi, Prof. B J Rao, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Hyderabad, Prof. Ramamurthy K, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, Pankaj Bansal, Co-Founder, People Strong and Board Member- Karmayogi Bharat, Prof. Aditya Mittal, Dean Student Affairs, IIT Delhi, Govind Jaiswal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education.

Issue of paper leaks

The NEET examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates appeared for it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, saying the evaluation of the answer sheets was completed earlier. As many as 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA’s history, with six from a centre in Haryana’s Faridabad figuring in the list, raising suspicions about irregularities. It has been alleged that grace marks contributed to 67 students sharing the top rank. The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.

National Testing Agency (NTA)

The National Testing Agency (NTA) is an autonomous agency under the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of India. It was established in November 2017 to conduct entrance examination admissions and recruitment. The NTA is responsible for conducting numerous national-level exams for admission and fellowship in higher educational institutions related to engineering, medicine, management and pharmacy.