Examination reforms: Nilekani panel considering question vault mechanism, digital delivery of paper at last minute to prevent leaks

A QUESTION vault mechanism backed by highly secure software, a pool of over one lakh questions prepared and vetted throughout the year and digital delivery of question papers minutes before an examination are among the key proposals being considered by the Nandan Nilekani-led High Powered Task Force (HPTF) on examination reforms to prevent paper leaks, sources said.

The task force is also discussing “debundling” examination-related responsibilities so that a single service provider is not entrusted with conducting exams, managing centres and preparing question papers.

Nilekani, the head of the six-member HPTF constituted after the NEET-UG paper leak, recently said one way to prevent leaks was to create a question bank and generate the paper at the last minute.

“Why do we need to have something called ‘A’ question paper? Because the moment you have ‘A’ question paper, that creates an economic incentive for that to be sold or whatever. So the way to do that is to have a massive bank of question papers and only at the last minute generate the question paper for that day. Then the question paper does not go away and there is no economic incentive for that,” he said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026 on Tuesday.

This question vault mechanism is already being used by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). A senior government official described a question vault supported by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology as the future. “Let us say you have 1,000 experts for setting question papers, vetting and verifying them. Instead of informing them that they are preparing questions for a particular examination, you just ask them to keep preparing questions throughout the year,” the official said. The questions would be vetted, verified, translated into the required languages and stored securely.

“If you create a pool of one lakh questions for the SSC examination and need a paper of 20–30 questions, you randomly select them from that pool and draw up the paper. This way, even the person setting the question paper would not know which questions are eventually going to be asked. This is called a question vault,” the official said.

Officials said translation had been identified as a “ key vulnerability”.

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“When question papers drafted in English are translated into regional languages, translators may gain access to the entire paper or a portion of it. It happened in the recent NEET-UG leak. Marathi translator came to Delhi, translated, mugged up questions and reproduced them to earn money,” the official said. “A secure, technology-backed vault could help address this vulnerability.”

SSC Chairman S Gopalakrishnan said the Commission conducts computer-based tests (CBTs) for about a dozen recruitment exams a year, held at over 200 centres in about 140 cities spread across the country in over 300 shifts.

“There has not been a single instance of any paper leak in the last five years. But the more significant aspect is that a leak is impossible because we do not print our question papers. There will never be a leak of an SSC question paper, because of the encryption technologies and the processes followed in creating, vetting, translating and delivering questions for any test through an internal digital vault,” he said.

According to the SSC Chairman, the subject-matter experts upload a large number of questions online covering various topics. There is “no concept of seeking questions in the form of question papers”. The vault holds a large number of questions.

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Regarding delivery, Gopalakrishnan said, “For instance, if an exam is scheduled at 5 pm, questions for the said test are randomly selected according to a predetermined design and blueprint specifying the difficulty level and question types. The question paper is assembled from the vault, compiled and encrypted at 4.45 pm and just before 5 pm, the encrypted question paper is sent to around 200 examination centres across the country. At 5 pm, when candidates log in and enter their passwords, they can see the question paper.”

The HPTF, which has held over 58 meetings and consultations with various stakeholders in the last two months on exam reforms, will submit its final report by the end of October.

Doreswamy P, the CEO of Excelsoft technologies that conducts various examinations in India and abroad, said: “A secure question vault, combined with last-minute question paper generation, is a promising step towards reducing examination paper leaks. However, the real challenge is not just protecting the final paper, but securing the entire process — from question creation and validation to storage, selection and delivery.”

“Drawing on our experience in delivering high-stakes assessments internationally, we believe such a system must combine strong encryption, controlled access, separation of responsibilities and comprehensive audit trails that record every critical action,” he said.