
The Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today announced that his ministry and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are deliberating on whether to conduct medical entrance exam NEET-UG in pen and paper mode or online mode.
“The administrative ministry of NEET is Health Ministry and hence we are in talks with them about whether NEET should be conducted in pen and paper mode or online mode. We have had two rounds of talks with Health Ministry led by JP Nadda. Whatever option will be considered best suited for conducting the exam, NTA is ready to undertake the exercise,” Pradhan told reporters in the Capital on Tuesday.
Multi-stage testing for NEET-UG was also proposed as a viable possibility by the high-level committee of experts. A decision on this will be notified soon. “What will be NEET’s methodology, what will be the protocol…a decision is expected soon. We will notify it soon,” he added.
This announcement comes a few months after Ministry of Education constituted a high-level committee of experts, headed by former ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan, to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations. The seven-member committee was tasked with making recommendations on reform in the mechanism of examination process, improvement in data security protocols and structure and functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA).
In addition to the ISRO chairman, the panel included members such as Central University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor Professor BJ Rao, former director of AIIMS Delhi Randeep Guleria, K Ramamurthy in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras, People Strong co-founder and Karmayogi Bharat board member Pankaj Bansal, IIT Delhi Dean of Student Affairs Aditya Mittal and MoE Joint Secretary Govind Jaiswal.
Currently, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is one of the largest undergraduate entrance exam conducted in India. In 2024, a record over 24 lakh candidates took the exam. The exam is conducted offline — in pen and paper mode — wherein students have to solve multiple choice questions on an OMR sheet. However, after a paper leak was alleged in 2024, the Ministry started dabbling with the idea of conducting NEET UG in an online mode.