The National Testing Agency (NTA), the body responsible for conducting some of India’s most high-stakes entrance exams, is operating with a strikingly thin permanent workforce, the government has confirmed.
Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the NTA currently has only 24 officials filling its permanent posts, against a sanctioned strength of 39. That leaves 15 positions vacant. All 39 permanent posts, notably, are filled through deputation rather than direct recruitment.
To keep operations running, the agency leans heavily on temporary and outsourced staff. It currently has 73 contractual personnel, including advisors, consultants and young professionals, alongside 124 outsourced workers such as data analysts and legal associates.
Majumdar was responding to questions from CPI(M) MP V Sivadasan. He added that the government is working to strengthen the NTA’s core team, with 16 new posts — eight at Director level and eight at Joint Director level — approved to be filled through the Central Staffing Scheme.
For an organisation of this scale, the numbers are worth pausing on. The NTA has conducted over 270 examinations since it was set up in 2018, covering more than 6.6 crore candidate registrations. This year alone, it has run 12 exams involving over 65 lakh candidates, including NEET UG 2026, held on 3 May across 5,432 centres in 565 cities in 13 languages. Following Supreme Court directions, a re-examination took place on 21 June, with results out on 16 July.
The disclosure comes amid growing public scrutiny of the NTA following a string of exam-related controversies this year, and raises fresh questions about whether an agency handling exams for tens of millions of students each year is adequately staffed for the job.
According to the data shared by the minister, the NTA’s income increased from Rs 504.16 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 1,116.84 crore in 2023-24, while its expenditure rose from Rs 440.20 crore to Rs 1,040.96 crore during the same period.
