India uses a nineteenth-century examination system.

“India uses a nineteenth-century examination system.”Rahul Gandhi, Chhatron Ki Goonj rally, Dehradun, 17 July 2026

Rated False

The facts

1. The PM Modi Government has fundamentally transformed the examination system by moving it towards large-scale digital and technology-enabled testing. India today uses computer-based testing, biometric verification, encrypted paper transmission, and multi-shift examinations to improve security and transparency.
2. Railways led this transition at an unprecedented scale. In 2017, 92 lakh candidates across 351 cities appeared for a computer-based recruitment examination, then described as the world’s largest CBT.62
3. The digital examination infrastructure has expanded significantly since then. Between 2019 and March 2026, NTA conducted over 275 examination cycles involving 6.61 crore candidate registrations across different examination modes63
4. Railways completed computer-based examinations for 59,678 posts across up to 157 cities and 15 languages, without any paper leak.64
5. SSC now uses Aadhaar authentication, digital-vault question transmission, electronic dossiers, online answer-key challenges and equi-percentile normalisation for fairer multi-shift examinations.65

Sources

• 62pib.gov.in
• 63sansad.in
• 64pib.gov.in
• 65pib.gov.in

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