NEET fix as exams are getting messier

The scandalous leak of NEET question papers for its May 3 test quite rightly triggered an uproar across the country. Which is why some 2.2 mn candidates heaved an extra sigh of relief as the NEET re-test went off last weekend without a hitch.

The number of candidates who took the re-test is more than 10% of the combined population of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Still, it makes more sense in the football World Cup season to point to Curacao and Cape Verde, which have a combined population of only about 0.7 mn.

The sheer scale of the NEET examination and history of football offer a combined reason to suggest that it's time for general insurance companies to consider designing policies that might help both aspirants and testing agencies in India secure a backstop against gut-wrenching, stress-inducing events linked to mass examinations.


There is reason to believe that both candidates and test agencies are vulnerable to stress, opportunity costs and breaches. They may well shell out premium payments for a safety net. This is not quite like life insurance. But it does involve long-term career issues associated with risks that need to be managed.

One need only look at sports stars and rock stars, and the people who organise events involving them, for precedents. Rock shows and top-tier sports tournaments are routinely insured against operational and financial risks through highly customised policies that guard against event cancellations, physical harm and third-party liabilities.

We need not go as far as looking at Bette Davis' waist and Miley Cyrus' tongue, said to be insured for $28,000 in the 1940s and $1 mn in 2013, respectively. Those examples are somewhat outre. However, Lloyd's of London, the polestar of insurers, designed a policy for Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, whose hands were insured for $1.6 mn.

If that strikes the right chord, Pele (insured against injury at the 1966 World Cup for £2,50,000), and the legs of Lionel Messi (reportedly left leg for $900 mn) and Cristiano Ronaldo (both legs for $90 mn in 2013, today's value $144 mn) offer valuable insurance clues about risks that link careers with physical safety and event management.

All this offers clues for India's general insurers. On a back-of-the-envelope calculation, if 2.2 mn NEET candidates were insured at ₹5,000 per head, that would account for revenue of more than ₹1,100 cr. That's money for nothing if insurers play their cards well and get lucky. It all depends on who takes out a policy and for what purpose.

An untoward incident, an accident, or a natural disaster affecting test venues - not to mention a question paper leak, or some form of misconduct that necessitates a re-test - all present insurance opportunities.

In fact, one could look at top-up options for individuals.

There is a dispute raging over whether it was a technical glitch at NTA, or a logged-in venue change that caused a NEET aspirant to be allotted a test centre in Abu Dhabi instead of Nagpur. But a general insurer can certainly tell both agency and aspirant: 'We've got you covered!'

India's crack-that-test culture is well chronicled and offers plenty of scope for risk managers.

More than half a million candidates appeared for UPSC preliminary exam this year, while CUET for UG and PG courses, conducted by NTA, saw 1.07 mn students appear for the exam last year. An estimated 1.3 mn people took the main JEE for admission to IITs last January.

These numbers are indicative of the risks associated with such tests in India's demographic transition, which presents both threats and opportunities for testing agencies and aspirants alike. It's time for general insurers to innovate by thinking beyond the obvious health and automobile policies. Because exams, one might say, are only going to get Messi-er.