Nandan Nilekani calls for AI-generated question papers, nationwide computer-based testing

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani on Tuesday called for a big shift in India's framework for conducting examinations and proposed the use of artificial intelligence to create question papers on the day of the test in a bid to remove the risk around fraud and leaks.

"Question papers create an economic incentive for them to be sold. So, the way to solve this is to really have a massive bank of questions, and only at the last minute generate the question paper for that day, and therefore the question of 'a' question paper goes away, and there's no economic incentive for that. That's one way to think about how to solve this," Nilekani said while speaking at the Bloomberg Economic Forum in New Delhi.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier in the year, turned to Nilekani who has built one of India's largest software companies, to fix issues with India's examination system. This happened after Gen-Z led protests led to the resignation of erstwhile Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan post the infamous leak of the NEET-UG question paper.

Modi tapped Nilekani to chair a high-powered panel on exam reforms after repeated paper leaks seemed to erod public confidence in the testing system.

The Infosys co-founder on Tuesday stressed that there was a need to changer towards a nationwide Computer-Based Testing model.

"The other thing is, of course, how to make sure all exams are done on a computer-based testing, and that requires a network of locations. We have 150,000 locations where a young boy or girl can take a test. That needs to be expanded," he added.