India appoints CBSE chairperson, secretary amid OSM probe

The Indian government appointed new leadership for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday, replacing the board's chairperson and secretary amid a controversy over its digital evaluation system. Senior bureaucrat Lokhande Prashant Sitaram was named the new CBSE chairperson, and Varun Bhardwaj was appointed as the new secretary.

The appointments, approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, follow the removal of former chairperson Rahul Singh and former secretary Himanshu Gupta. Singh has been reassigned as an additional secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Gupta has been prematurely repatriated to his parent cadre, the Ministry of Home Affairs, with an extended cooling-off condition, making him eligible for another central deputation only after December 2030.

This administrative overhaul coincides with the government ordering a one-member inquiry committee to examine the procurement and implementation of the board's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. The committee, headed by S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, is tasked with investigating the procurement process and submitting its findings within...