Railway
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts exams like NEET-UG and JEE Main, was established in:
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Answer: Option A — 2017
Detailed Solution
The National Testing Agency (NTA) was established in November 2017.
About the NTA:
- Its creation was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget for 2017-18.
- It was approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2017.
- It was registered as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
- It works under the Ministry of Education (then the Ministry of Human Resource Development).
- Its headquarters is in New Delhi.
- It is headed by a Director General, appointed by the Government of India, and has a Governing Body chaired by an eminent educationist.
- Its purpose is to conduct efficient, transparent and international-standard tests for admission to higher education institutions.
- It took over many exams earlier conducted by the CBSE and other bodies.
Exams conducted by the NTA:
- JEE Main: for admission to NITs, IIITs and other engineering colleges; also the qualifying exam for JEE Advanced (conducted by the IITs).
- NEET-UG: for admission to medical courses (MBBS, BDS and others).
- UGC-NET: for Junior Research Fellowship and eligibility for Assistant Professor.
- CUET-UG and CUET-PG (Common University Entrance Test): for admission to central and other universities (since 2022).
- CSIR-UGC NET, NCET and others.
It conducted its first exam, the UGC-NET, in December 2018. JEE Main was conducted twice a year from 2019.
Reforms:
After controversies over NEET-UG 2024, the government set up a high-level committee under former ISRO chief Dr. K. Radhakrishnan to suggest reforms in the NTA.
Parliament passed the "Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024" to deal with paper leaks and cheating in public examinations.
The government decided that from 2025, the NTA would focus only on entrance exams for higher education, and not conduct recruitment exams.
Other exam-conducting bodies:
- UPSC (1926): civil services and other central recruitment.
- SSC (1975): central government staff recruitment.
- CBSE (1929/1962): school board exams.
Why not the other options?
- ✗2010 is not linked to the NTA.
- ✗2014 is not linked to the NTA.
- ✗2019 is the year JEE Main began being conducted twice a year by the NTA.
Quick tip
Remember: National Testing Agency = 2017 (announced in Budget 2017-18; Ministry of Education; JEE Main, NEET-UG, UGC-NET, CUET); Radhakrishnan committee = NTA reforms (2024); Public Examinations Act = 2024.
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Organisations & Headquarters — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Organisations & Headquarters, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers national and international organisations: the United Nations and its agencies, regional groups such as SAARC, ASEAN and BRICS, global bodies such as the WHO, ILO and UNESCO, and Indian institutions, with their headquarters, founding years, members and heads. Questions typically ask where an organisation is headquartered, when it was founded, or what its full form is. For example, UNESCO is headquartered in Paris and the WHO in Geneva. Membership and leadership change over time, so pair the static facts here with current affairs for recent changes such as new members or new heads. Practise the organisations and headquarters questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.