Modi taps Nilekani to overhaul India's exam system
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- Modi announced on July 26 a task force headed by tech entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani to overhaul India's exam system, his first public comment on the crisis that triggered weeks of youth-led protests.
- Modi pledged new legislation in Parliament on July 27 to tighten the law on exam paper leaks, calling for a system that is 'trustworthy, transparent' and makes 'maximum use of technology.'
- Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on July 25 under protest pressure; Modi did not mention Pradhan in his 30-second video statement.
- Cockroach Janta Party, the youth movement that spearheaded the demonstrations, called off its protests on July 25 after the government met its demands.
- The government accepted demands to drop police cases against protesters and compensate families of students who died by suicide after the May exam paper leaks.
- Nilekani is best known for leading the creation of India's Aadhaar digital identity system and co-founding software major Infosys.
Why it matters: Modi is putting a tech-billionaire reputation on the line to fix a system where paper leaks have ended young lives — compensating suicide victims' families signals the political cost of inaction was already high. With the education minister gone and Parliament-bound legislation, the government is converting protest concessions into binding law rather than just administrative tweaks.
