India PM Modi announces panel to overhaul exam system after protests
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Sunday (Jul 26) the creation of a task force headed by tech entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani to overhaul the country's examination system, following weeks of youth protests over exam paper leaks.
"Our examination system should be trustworthy, should be transparent and the system should make maximum use of technology," Modi said in a statement posted on Instagram.
He added that new legislation to deal with paper leaks would be introduced in parliament on Monday, tightening the law and toughening penalties for offenders.
It was Modi's first public comment since Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday following protests by youth activists demanding he quit over exam paper leaks in May. Modi did not mention Pradhan in his 30-second video statement.
The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, which spearheaded the demonstrations, called off its protests on Saturday after its demands were met.
The government also accepted the protesters' demands for reforms to the exam system, including dropping police cases filed against protesters and compensating families of students who died by suicide after the exam paper leaks.
Nilekani is best known for leading the creation of India's digital identity system Aadhaar and co-founding software company Infosys.
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Speaking to CNA's Asia First, Devesh Kapur, Starr Foundation Professor of South Asia Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, said the government had underestimated the depth of anger among India's youth over repeated failures of national exams.
He described the exams as "one of the few ladders of social mobility" for India's lower middle class, adding that the demonstrations also posed a political challenge because many protesters came from Modi's traditional support base.
"The middle class and especially lower middle class have been core to Prime Minister Modi's party's support base and their own members' children were among the crowd," he said.
"So, it was much harder to dismiss them as anti-nationalists."
The speed of the government's response marked a departure from its usual approach to protests, Kapur noted, adding that the episode had dented the "aura of invincibility" that Modi had.
"This time, I think most people were caught by surprise at the relative speed with which they moved to accept the resignation of the education minister, which probably tells us that they realise this is becoming a much more serious issue and needs to be nipped in the bud," he said.
Kapur said he expected some of the proposed reforms to be implemented, but cautioned that the controversy reflected broader economic frustrations.
"One should understand that the exams are just one symptom of deeper discontent in India's youth, which is the lack of economic opportunities, the paucity of good jobs," he said.
