An Open-Letter to Minister for HRD (India)
To
Shri Arjun Singh ji
Minister for HRD (Union of India)
Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi-110003.
Sir,
Sub: Happy New year!
Please accept our best wishes for the successful discharge of the responsibilities assigned to your goodself as Hon’ble the Minister for Human Resources Development, and our congratulations for settling the ticklish issue regarding the IIMs’ fees-structure.
May we suggest & offer to introduce a fool-proof method for preventing paper-leakages in the various National-level Competitive Exams:-
1. Our Organisation will have a Board of Examiners-- which shall have its own secure & unsecure web-sites. Web-site No.1 (unsecure) will announce the dates for the Exams, Examination-Centres and the Instructions for the Candidates.
2. For each examination we shall have a hundred different versions of the Question-paper of the same difficulty-level-- duly moderated before release.
These versions will be uploaded to web-site No.2 (secure) about 15 minutes before the start of the exams.
The said web-site can be opened with a ‘password e-card’. The password shall be encrypted on this e-card, and shall be available with the Chief Invigilator only. The password shall be handed over to the said Chief Invigilator about 20 minutes before the start of the said exams. The e-card will be inserted into the de-cryptor (attached through the USB to each PC)to activate the website on each PC separately.
Upon activation, the web-site will display a web-page containing an inter-active Question-paper.
The candidate shall be required either to click on the radio-button of his choice or to fill-
in the blank input-box, and then press the ‘Lock’ button-- to register his/her choice and go to the next question.
Caution: After pressing the ‘Lock’ button the candidate cannot edit his/her answer to that Question. If the candidate wants to skip a Question -- with the intention of returning to it later, then he/she shall have to press the “Skip” button.
The clock for each candidate shall automatically start running from the time the said site is activated on the PC allotted to him/her, and will stop displaying the web-page containing the Question-paper at the end of the time allocated for the exams.
The password shall change every year.
3. Each PC will have a unique ID-Number (computed by multiplying its IP Address with a random number) which shall be known to the Domain Controller only.
With the help of ‘Random-Tables’ built into the said web-site, the said ID-Number will be randomly attached to one particular version of the Question-paper. At the end of the Examination-Session, the examinee shall press the on-screen “End & Submit” button, the web-site will stop receiving further commands (inputs)from him/her and immediately display on screen the Final Score of the concerned examinee.
The examinee shall note down the said Score and compare it with the ‘cut-off marks’ announced by the Board of Examiners-- the cut-off marks will be announced within a week of the said Exams.
If the examinee’s aforesaid score is equivalent to or above the said cut-off marks, then he automatically stands selected; however, in case the number of candidates so selected exceeds the number of available seats (these two numbers will already be known to the said Board at the time of announcing the said cut-off point), then the aforementioned announcement shall include a List of Candidates whose marks are equivalent to the said cut-off marks, and invite them to a ‘Draw of Lots’.
The said draw may be conducted simultaneously at several Centres through the Board’s web-site No.3 (secure).
4. There will be five servers-- one each for the Northern, Mid-Eastern, Eastern, Southern and Mid-Western regions of India.
With warm regards,
(Prof. Gulshan Bajwa)