KOCHI: Of late, question paper leaks have become a norm. The latest was the NEET 2026 leak that affected over 22 lakh students across the country and sparked protests that continue to rock the nation’s capital. As it turns out, such leaks can be prevented.
Santhosh Babu, who was pivotal in the development of K-SMART and in the success of Kerala’s public-funded broadband initiative KFON, said the answer lies in technology.
“The present system is vulnerable to a leak right from the outset,” said Santhosh, currently a special officer with the Travancore Devaswom Board.
“In the beginning, there can be a leak if any of the persons setting the question paper lacks integrity. If that doesn’t happen, the next step where the material is taken to the printing press on a pen drive is highly vulnerable,” said the former KFON MD, adding that most of the leaks take place at the printing press.
This can all be prevented using technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), he said. “AI can generate, validate and calibrate millions of questions with appropriate topic weightage — far beyond a static question bank,” he explained on FB. For each subject and topic, there are hundreds of questions in a question bank stored in a database developed for this purpose and kept at the office of the CBSE commissioner, he said.
“Let’s assume the algorithm allows millions of combinations of question papers that can be set with just one click of the mouse. One only needs a highly-developed algorithm sophisticated enough to generate question papers providing appropriate weightage to each topic in a question paper,” he said.
Assuming that the server capacity at the CBSE commissioner’s office, where the question bank is kept, is very high and there is an Aadhaar-linked database of every school and student taking the exam, then encrypted, last-minute delivery of unique question papers per exam centre (not even per student) would make leaks essentially pointless, as there will be nothing to leak.
“Everything will happen at the click of a mouse,” he said.
“No external source gets a chance to take a look at the paper. Everything is vested with the commissioner and the official inside the examination hall,” said Santhosh.
On concerns related to proper infrastructure and hacking, Santhosh said uninterrupted electricity, internet connectivity and high-speed printers have to be ensured.
“The costs will be just for upgrading the infrastructure since every school has a huge computer infrastructure already. On ensuring power and internet connectivity, my answer is to keep two or three redundant lines. This is done during Lok Sabha and assembly elections, then why not for entrance examinations? As for hacking, the short time doesn’t allow any chance, and even if it happens, the students are already in the exam halls,” said Santhosh, who recently
met with top officials in Delhi to discuss and present his idea.