On November 4, 2026, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay reiterated the demand to scrap the NEET examination and consider Class 12 Board Examination marks for admission to medical schools.
He put forward his demand during a high-level meeting with Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Task Force, at the State Secretariat.
During the meeting with Nandan Nilekani, the Tamil Nadu government said it would remove all entrance exams required for students pursuing higher-level courses after Class 12.
Chief Minister Vijay said that admission in professional courses after high school must be based on the marks obtained in the Class 12 board examination.
He argued that the marks obtained at the high school level should be most important to judge someone’s merit for admission in professional courses.
According to an official statement released by the PTI, the state government used the meeting to discuss major concerns right before the panel.
The state representatives highlighted the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly’s resolution that was passed on August 11.
The issue remained a major point of debate between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government as the state continues to question the necessity of a single, centralized entrance test for medical admissions.
The Central Government originally constituted the High Powered Task Force (HPTF) in August 2025 under the chairmanship of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.
The mandate of the panel includes comprehensive measures that can help strengthen the institutional accountability, security, design, and governance of government exams, especially those that are conducted by the NTA.
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Director V. Kamakoti, former Union Education Secretary Anita Karwal, and EkStep Foundation CEO Shankar Maruwada attended the meeting on Wednesday.
Chairman Nandan Nilekani has also advocated for the use of technological solutions for the betterment of the current examination system in the country; he specifically targeted the infamous question paper leaks in the country.
Nilekani mentioned at the Bloomberg Economic Forum in October that they can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop question papers in real time. This will be done using a large and secure question bank, which is managed by the testing authorities. The AI will create the question papers shortly before the exam.
According to a report by ANI, N.K. Narendran said that the current way of distributing a fixed and pre-printed question paper easily creates a window for the paper to get leaked.
According to him, the current system allows corrupt people to steal and then sell exam papers online and otherwise.
He suggested printing the exam papers on the same day so that no one gets the opportunity to steal them beforehand.
Nilekani also suggested a nationwide transition toward a Computer-Based Testing (CBT) platform to make these examinations more secure.
(Rh/ARC)
