The Central Bureau of Secondary Education (CBSE) has found itself in a mess with raining students’ complains over mismatch in their Class 12 answer sheets, produced by the board through the new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system — an evaluation method that has drawn criticisms as well as questions for being faulty.
The complains around OSM have also brought in focus a firm, Coempt Edutech, which Congress MP Rahul Gandhi cited in his recent criticism of the CBSE, asking “why a company that had a murky past in Telangana handed the contract to the Board.” The CBSE said the contract was indeed awarded to Coempt Edutech, but dismissed the allegations against the firm.
CBSE introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) for Class12 Board examinations from 2026. Under OSM, answer books are digitally scanned and evaluated online — which the board says eliminates totaling errors and reduces manual intervention.
The system enables faster evaluation, wider teacher participation including overseas schools, reduced logistics costs, and environmentally sustainable processes, according to CBSE.
CBSE has been going around giving out clarifications and debunking allegations by Opposition after discrepancies flagged by a Delhi student, Vedant Shrivastava, over mismatch of his Physics paper gave momentum to the already floating complains surrounding the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system of evaluation.
Coempt Edutech, the firm in focus amid CBSE-OSM row
The CBSE on Wednesday rejected an allegation that it had awarded a contract to Coempt Edutech, saying the claim was “erroneous, misleading and not based on facts.”
The board said the contract was indeed awarded to Coempt Edutech, but rejected the allegations against the firm.
Coempt Edutech’s website describes itself as a leading EdTech company with over 25 years of progressive experience in providing end-to-end examination solutions to certificate awarding bodies. “Our solutions like OneX, Onmark, EzyTest, and DigiTab are envisioned and meticulously developed to empower awarding bodies practice transparency and good governance in the assessment and examination space,” Coempt Edutech’s website reads.
The website suggests that the company is headquartered in Madhura Nagar, Hyderabad, Telangana.
Coempt Edutech’s top management comprises chairman – Prof. Sadagopan, founding director of IIIT Bangalore and former professor at IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore; managing director M. Anantha Chary, an entrepreneur with experience across the IT, healthcare and BFSI sectors; director and CEO VSN Raju, an experienced IT professional; director – Dr R Jayaraman, member cecretary of CED Tamil Nadu and an expert in management studies and entrepreneurship; and director – AV Narayana, a retired IPS officer from the CID, Andhra Pradesh, according to the website.
The company claims to be the most preferred partner to automate critical examination processes like pre-examination, question paper management, AI-based online examination, answer-book digitization (uncut), digital evaluation, and post examination. “Our strong techno-commercial team continuously adapts and evolves to implement solutions that impact over 2 million students each year.”
The company said it has delivered large turnkey projects empowering clients to practice transparency and good governance.
Rahul Gandhi’s allegations rejected by CBSE
CBSE’s response Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi came after alleged irregularities in the OSM system and demanded an independent judicial probe and an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the matter.
“CBSE rejects the allegations regarding the award of contract to Coempt Edutech. It is erroneous, misleading and not based on facts,” the board said in a reply to Rahul on X.
It said the contract was awarded after following due procedure under the General Financial Rules.
“CBSE has followed the General Financial Rules protocols scrupulously in the awarding of the contract to the agency. CBSE floated the RFP for Digital Evaluation of Answer books for Board Exams 2026 on Central Public Procurement portal on 28.08.2025 and awarded the contract to the qualified bidder,” the board said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi demanded an independent judicial probe as well as a SIT to unearth the truth behind the “entire scam”, and asked why a firm that had a murky past in Telangana handed the contract to the Board.
Gandhi said CBSE students and their parents are traumatised but Prime Minister Narendra Modi “has nothing to say.”
In a video put out on his social media accounts, Gandhi said unbelievable details are emerging about the class 12 CBSE exam.
“COEMPT, the company that did the On-Screen Marking (OSM) for your exam, was actually called Globarena. Globarena has carried out this scam twice before in Telangana, once in the board exam in Telangana in 2019 and after that again in Telangana in 2023. The same OSM-based errors were responsible for the death by suicide of 23 young Indians in Telangana,” the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
“This was all public information. It was known to everybody and yet for some hidden reason the CBSE chose the same company again. It took us 30 seconds to figure out that this company was earlier called something else. I am absolutely certain that the people in the CBSE and in the government of India were aware of this company’s background,” Gandhi said.
