Exam News LIVE: After candidate's confession on leaked NEET paper, Bihar Police to launch investigation

UGC-NET and NEET-UG Latest Updates: The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday released the admit cards of candidates now appearing for NEET UG 2024 retest on its official website – neet.ntaonline.in. Only candidates who have received grace marks from the NTA due to loss of exam time can take the retest. Besides, the Supreme Court today sought responses from the Centre, the NTA and others on petitions seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 and a court-monitored probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance examination. The SC also stayed the proceedings in the pleas filed in the Rajasthan, Calcutta and Bombay High Courts regarding the alleged paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 exam.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that every year the Prime Minister organizes a “grand tamasha of what he calls ‘Pareeksha pe Charcha'”. “Yet his government cannot even conduct a review without leaks and fraud,” he added. The opposition party also asked the prime minister if he would “disclose and speak”. The Ministry of Education said on Wednesday evening that the UGC-NET exam was canceled following reports that the integrity of the exam had been compromised. The central government canceled the UGC-NET exam, conducted by the National Testing Agency, just a day after it was held. More than 900,000 candidates sat for the exam, which aims to determine eligibility for junior research grants. The Education Ministry said the University Grants Commission (UGC) has received inputs from the National Cybercrime Threat Analysis Unit (NCTAU) of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C) on the exam. “These contributions indicate prima facie that the integrity of the above-mentioned review may have been compromised,” the ministry said.

A new examination will be carried out, for which information will be shared separately, it is added. The case will also be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation. Coming amid the ongoing row over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 medical entrance exam, the cancellation of the UGC-NET adds to the NTA’s growing woes. The case is being heard by the Supreme Court, which observed Tuesday that it does not want “even 0.001 percent negligence.”

The NTA is an autonomous body established by the Center to conduct entrance and scholarship examinations in higher education institutions. The NTA is expected to carry out all these responsibilities in a “scientific manner” in consultation with subject matter experts and psychometricians.

UGC NET or National Eligibility Test is an examination conducted for appointment of assistant professors, junior research fellowships and PhD admission in universities. In a statement, the Ministry of Education said that the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) June examination was conducted on Tuesday in OMR (pen and paper) mode in two teams across the country.