New Delhi, August 28, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Centre has appointed two directors and a joint director to the National Testing Agency (NTA) as part of the ongoing overhaul of the examination body following the controversy surrounding NEET-UG, according to official documents.
Orders issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on August 27 said IAS officer Prasanna Venkatesh V and IPS officer Ravi Kumar Singh had been appointed as directors in the NTA.
Prasanna Venkatesh, a 2012-batch IAS officer, has been posted to the NTA under the Central Staffing Scheme for five years. A graduate of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, he has served as Secretary of the Social Welfare Department and of the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society in Guntur.
Ravi Kumar Singh, a 2012-batch Andhra Pradesh-cadre IPS officer, has also been appointed as an NTA director. Recommended for Central deputation by the Union Home Ministry, Singh has additionally been shifted to the Department of Higher Education for five years.
Singh previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing.
The DoPT has also appointed 2016-batch Indian Revenue Service officer Amit Samdariya as joint director in the NTA at the deputy secretary level for four years.
The appointments come amid the Centre’s efforts to restructure the NTA following student protests over alleged irregularities in NEET-UG 2026. The government has also initiated other organisational changes at the examination agency.
As part of the revamp, 47 NTA officials were removed, with the move aimed at facilitating possible legal and criminal action against some officials amid allegations concerning examination irregularities and paper leaks.
Among the proposed changes is a review of the NTA’s outsourcing arrangements to strengthen examination security. A four-tier question-paper verification system with additional scrutiny layers is also expected to be introduced.
The latest appointments are part of the broader effort to strengthen the agency’s systems and processes and address concerns over the integrity and security of major national-level examinations conducted by the NTA.
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