'Future of youth now a mere revenue-raising exercise'

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh on Sunday slammed the Centre for jeopardizing the "future of millions of India's youths" and making the National Testing Agency "a mere revenue-raising exercise."

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Citing an answer to the Rajya Sabha by the Union MoS for Education Sukanta Majumdar during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament, the Congress leader claimed the government testing agency has not used fee income to build the agency's capabilities to conduct tests itself, or to strengthen regulatory and monitoring capabilities for its vendors.

The Union Minister, in his reply to a question on revenue generated by the agency, said that the NTA collected an estimated Rs 3,512.98 crore while it spent Rs 3,064.77 crore on the conduct of examinations - it, therefore, netted a surplus of Rs 448 crores in the last six years.

"The future of millions of India's youths has ultimately become a mere revenue-raising exercise for the non-biological PM's Government," Jairam Ramesh targetted Narendra Modi-led central government in an X post.