NEW DELHI: Amid protests over glitches and irregularities in the conduct of computer-based govt recruitment examinations by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), SSC chairman S Gopalakrishnan on Monday assured that the “technical and operational matters” faced by a few candidates in the first selection post examination on July 24, have been “stabilised” and no major disruptions anticipated in the upcoming exams.Gopalakrishnan said around 5.5 lakh candidates had appeared in the first exam, the first to be held after M/s Eduquity replaced M/s TCS as the exam conducting agency (ECA) in July 2025, with questions being set by other content agencies and delivered digitally from a vault. Some candidates at two of the total 194 centres faced issues due to bugs, like duplication of questions, repeat of same options, etc.

“A detailed analysis by CDAC identified about 59,000 candidates affected by system disruptions. They will now retake the exam in three shifts on August 29, 2025,” he said adding that the stenographer exams conducted from Aug 6-8 had witnessed no disruptions. SSC has also rescheduled the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) Exam from August 13 to mid-September.On Congress alleging “rigging” of government recruitment exams under the Modi government and slamming the “brutal lathicharge” on those protesting against it, SSC alleged that the protests, led by coaching institutes, were aimed at protecting business models rather than the genuine interests of candidates.Elaborating on the recent SSC examination reforms, Gopalakrishnan said aadhaar-based authentication at the application level and exam venue has helped prevent impersonation and repeated attempts by candidates to appear in multiple sessions or to take the role of scribes and exam functionaries. Also, deviation from old question patterns had denied the coaching institutes undue advantage. Rather than a single agency like TCS performing all tasks, SSC, has, from July onwards, entrusted different aspects of the examinations to four agencies. Eduquity is now the ECA, even as content agencies set the questions, CDAC handles IT security and detects hacking/malpractices and an independent agency monitors the exams. The idea is that no single agency can hijack or compromise the exams, and to maintain transparency and fairness, according to Gopalakrishnan.He further noted that the content providers, ECA and monitoring agencies are subject to deterrent penalties for any shortcomings in performance.The multiple agency system, it was highlighted, has resulted in certain entities (led by some online tutors or coaching institutes) attributing the initial system hiccups to ECA and demanding that TCS be brought back. Gopalakrishnan however explained that Eduquity was selected through a tender, with TCS listed only at third position in the bid.