The National Testing Agency (NTA) is an autonomous institution established by the Government of India under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education. It was formally established in November 2017 and registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, in 2018. The NTA was created to address the problem of multiple agencies, such as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), conducting numerous entrance examinations, which caused stress and inconsistency for students. Its origin can be traced back to the Programme of Action 1992, related to the National Policy on Education 1986, which first advocated for national-level common entrance tests.
The NTA's core mechanism is to function as a specialist, self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission and fellowship in higher educational institutions. It aims to improve the quality, transparency, and reliability of large-scale testing by using scientific test design, modern assessment methods, and computer-based testing (CBT). The NTA conducts major national-level exams like JEE Main, NEET-UG, CUET-UG, and UGC-NET. The establishment of the NTA relieved other bodies like the CBSE and AICTE of their examination-conducting responsibilities.
In recent times, the NTA has been subject to significant scrutiny following controversies over exam integrity, leading to a major overhaul. The government has announced a high-level committee to review and recommend improvements to the NTA's structure and functioning. Furthermore, the government has indicated that the NTA will now focus only on higher education entrance examinations and will no longer conduct recruitment examinations. This restructuring is also connected to the recent enactment of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, which provides for stricter punishment for organized examination fraud.