How the NEET can be restructured to end question paper leaks

E very spring, India conducts one of the largest and most fraught administrative gambles on Earth: the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG). According to reports, over 2.4 million candidates compete for roughly 120,000 undergraduate medical seats in June 2024, yielding a candidate-to-seat ratio exceeding 20 to 1. When an admissions framework compresses the life prospects of millions into a single 200-minute window, it creates perverse incentives. The result is a multi-billion-dollar test-prep industry that profits from anxiety and a hyper-centralised paper supply chain burdened by a single, catastrophic point of failure. Another aspect is the recurring leaks and systemic administrative lapses that have severely eroded public confidence in the system.