A Small Step for the Task Force: A Giant Step for India

Respected Shri Nilekani,

A Small Step for the Task Force — A Giant Step for India

Today's Hindustan Times report on the High-Powered Task Force confirms

 something I believe is genuinely momentous :

 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nilekani-panels-mandate-largely-overlaps-radhakrishnan-committees-nta-reform-report-101785983778008.html

The report notes that the principal new element the Task Force adds, beyond the

 Radhakrishnan Committee's brief, is an explicit mandate to examine the NTA's

 statutory framework — and that a Task Force member has indicated the panel

 could recommend converting the NTA, or a successor institution, into a statutory

 body.

That single sentence changes everything. It means the Terms of Reference have

 opened a door wide enough for exactly the structural reform I placed before the

 Prime Minister on 24 July, and before you on 26 July: replacing the NTA with a

 Central Testing Commission (CTC) — a constitutional statutory body on the lines

 of the Election Commission of India.

I would respectfully urge you to see this Task Force as an opportunity of a lifetime

 — not merely to patch a troubled agency, but to write a new chapter in the

 education history of India, one that goes all the way back to Macaulay's Minute of

 1835. Just as that Minute shaped the architecture of Indian education for nearly

 two centuries, this Task Force now has the mandate to lay down its next

 architecture — one genuinely in sync with the spirit of the National Education

 Policy.

A Task Force that recommends converting the NTA into a constitutional body would

 raise the bar for every examination and recruitment authority in the country, and

 would go a long way toward silencing the critics — the Opposition included — who

 have questioned whether this reform is anything more than a peripheral, damage-

control exercise. 

A constitutional CTC is, in institutional terms, a bigger and more

 consequential undertaking than Aadhaar: Aadhaar gave every citizen an identity;

 a CTC would give every citizen's merit a guarantee of integrity. And structurally

 speaking, scrapping the NTA in favour of a constitutional CTC is, in its own

 domain, as decisive a reform as the scrapping of Article 370 — replacing a fragile,

 revocable executive arrangement with a permanent constitutional one.

My request remains the same as before: that the CTC Framework be placed before

 the Task Force — Shri S. Somanath, Shri Tapan Deka, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Smt.

 Anita Karwal, and Shri Amrit Lal Meena — as an agenda item for discussion at

 your very first meeting, now that the Terms of Reference have been confirmed to

 extend exactly this far. As I have offered earlier, the complete source code of

 www.ntaNEET.net and www.My-Teacher.in remains available to the Task Force

 without any obligation whatsoever.

At 93, I would count it among the most satisfying contributions of my life to see

 this Task Force write that new chapter.

With warm regards and renewed best wishes for the Task Force's work,

Hemen Parekh

Mumbai

06 August 2026

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Supporting reading :

— the sequence of blog posts tracing this proposal through July 2026:

Srl | Title | Date | Link

1 | No More Exam Paper Leaks? YES | 22 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/no-more-exam-paper-leaks-yes.html

2 | CTC = Central Testing Commission — A Proposed Framework | 24 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/ctc-central-testing-commission-proposed.html

3 | A Streetcar named NEET | 24 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-streetcar-named-neet.html

4 | Missing the Wood for the Tree | 24 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/missing-wood-for-tree.html

5 | Exam Integrity: Beyond Just Jail | 24 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/exam-integrity-beyond-just-jail.html

6 | Agenda for Tomorrow — and for "Day after Tomorrow"? | 25 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/agenda-for-tomorrow-and-for-day-after.html

7 | Beyond Heroes: A New Beginning | 25 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/beyond-heroes-new-beginning.html

8 | Navigating Change in Education | 25 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/navigating-change-in-education.html

9 | Dear Shri Nilekaniji: Proposal for Structural Reform of NTA | 26 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/dear-shri-nilekaniji-agenda-for-first.html

10 | Building a Resilient NTA | 26 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/building-resilient-nta.html

11 | Full Circle for Dharmendra Pradhan | 26 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/full-circle-for-dharmendra-pradhan.html

12 | Examination And Testing [EAT] Commission of India | 27 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/examination-and-testing-eat-commission.html

13 | How to get all stakeholders to support CTC | 27 Jul |

 https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-to-get-all-stakeholders-to-support.html