(Photo: Tim G. Photography)
The integrity of the much-spirited Common Admission Test (CAT) exam has taken a beating with the tampering of scores of 80 students who took CAT 2012. All thanks to an anonymous caller. But what if this anonymous caller had not called? What if scores were meddled with last year but since there was no anonymous caller, there was no hullabaloo? It is possible that students with fiddled scores are presently in the second year in some of the top schools, at the cost of the ‘more deserving’ ones.
Same might be the case with other exams too, nothing is foolproof. The NMAT and the CAT scams have proved it. The IIMs always prided themselves in conducting the high-profile CAT, putting in place a modern-day system. Ignore the last minute ‘bus rides’ to exam centres because the original centres lacked facilities or the much-abused word ‘technical glitches’ reported every year after the exam went online. Not to forget the uproar that accompanied the first online version in 2009. But these are always bracketed as teething problems or that ‘it happens in India’ given the regular power/electricity and infrastructure snags.
The MHRD set up a high-level Committee (high level because it constitutes IIM-A’s acting director and IIM-Trichy’s chairman) to look into the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’. Typical of ‘committees’ in India, no one’s willing to talk. The IIMs are not talking either – the catchphrase being let the Committee submit its report. But there is bickering on – the fight is not just with the external party (Web Weavers which ran the IIM site and responsible for sending scores to non-IIMs) but within the institutes itself. The MHRD says the Committee’s report is ready but since one of the babus is not in town, it will be released after a few days.
The only party in this coalition which is transparent, doing its job, is the Kozhikode police. Unlike police in other cities, this one even shares a daily update and admits if work has been slow. The police are on the look out for the absconding Web Weavers’ employee (who was stationed at IIM-K) who holds the key to all the answers. The IIM Kozhikode computers have been seized.
So what have we all learnt from this? A flaccid answer given by an IIM official is to not involve an external agency like Web Weavers henceforth. But is that enough to institute a foolproof system? What happens to the ‘affected’ students/candidates? What if just 50 students paid money for interfering in their scores and the remaining 30 were tinkered with, only to mask the truant 50? They are being expelled or asked to withdraw admission.
The Mumbai police arrested Ghaziabad-based Vikas Bansal, the main accused in the The Narsee Monjee Management Aptitude Test (NMAT) case on Saturday, July 5, 2013. While investigations are still on, Mumbai police say that Bansal’s will not be the last arrest in this case. “There are many dummies who are still roaming free and we hope to catch them via Bansal,” said a police officer.
Bansal who ran small counselling centres across the country had contacts with people associated with coaching centres and hired them to works as impostors. He also had a team of agents who connected dummies to candidates. It is learnt that Bansal has provided information about other entrance exams as well.
Meanwhile, PaGaLGuY learnt that Narsee Monjee Management Aptitude Test (NMAT) racket has its genesis in none other than a Hindi potboiler – 3 Idiots. Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) management has admitted that while for years, there were general feelers that something was amiss during admission time, with applicants receiving phone calls from agents promising pucca seats at the institute, it was a celluloid impostor that got the ball rolling. Aamir Khan’s character in the move ‘3 Idiots‘ made Dr Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor of NMIMS, take a hunch and start investigation. The search led to a full scale exploration by NMIMS staff, which ended with the revelation of the real impostors and the expulsion of the students.
PaGaLGuY in conversation with Dr Rajan Saxena for some more details.
Dr Rajan Saxena
That every year some applicants received phone calls from agents was always known, why this sudden action?
I agree, even I was told about the calls from time to time. People did say that there were getting calls from those who claimed that they would help secure admissions but without any evidence it was difficult to do anything. I was on the look-out for some crucial verification before I could take some action. One can’t just go with hearsay, more so because we officially do not have a management quota. But last year, I sensed a small gap but I had nothing to investigate further.
So what is the evidence that you got?
No evidence as such. I just got thinking, that if there are so much talk, why not investigate. Frankly, the movie 3 Idiots inspired me. Aamir Khan not only attended classes, assuming somebody else’s name but also took the exams and passed with flying colours. I realised that if Aamir Khan could do it, so can others and that set me thinking. Me along with my staff, we began investigating the probables for this year. Like in the movie, I realised the photo evidence would help us nail offenders (if any) and that is what we went after.
What did the checking process involve?
My staff and I went through every single candidate’s profile this year, which was in the thousands. We also asked Pearson VUE India to send us the images file which contained pictures of the candidates taken before the exam and compared them with the pictures on their forms. That is when we found 80 pictures to be not matching. You can call this an NMIMS scoop. We gathered all the data and gave it to the police.
In all, how many students/candidates in the net?
Those who we caught this year, I would not call them students, but they were some 87. The 2012-2014 batch there were some 30 students and the 2011-2013 batch, another 50 or so.
Those from the 2011-2013 batch, you have sent letters to their employers?
Yes, in fact we have sent letters to employers of all students discussing the fraud and also mentioning specifically if any of their employees are part of the ‘fraud’ students. This was also to re-assure those who had not employed any of the affected students so that they are not left confused. We have come to know that some companies have already starting asking the said employees to leave or holding back their benefits till the case comes to its logical end. We are also in legal talks to cancel their degrees and that will be done ASAP. The 2012-2014 batch, we have asked them to not join the second year.
Were most of these students rich? Rs 10-15 lakhs per exam is no small amount.
No, in fact, most were not. Some parents have sold off land; others have put in their savings.
So, the parents knew about it?
Yes, they felt it was a kind of a management quota thing that they give money and the seat is made secure. We did meet all the students and their parents in the school auditorium after the fraud came into the public eye. We showed them the evidence we had and asked them to compare the photos themselves. We asked them why none of them bothered to cross check with the institute about the management quota when we have clearly abolished management seats some years ago.
Have students come to you for a hearing?
Of course, they are coming. But I have been very firm. Something like this cannot be pardoned. They say they were desperate to secure a seat and that is why they hired an impostor but what is wrong is wrong. Am not taking them back in any condition.
Any changes in the exam this year because of this episode?
Three big changes. One, is that a candidate will have to upload his photo while registering for the exam. Second is that, only the passport or the PAN card will be allowed as identification. No Adhaar cards or driving license. And third, we have done away with smaller centres which could help facilitate such frauds. We used to have centres in remote areas for convenience of the candidates but now we feel it is better that they travel to the nearest big exam centre.
Cheating, plagiarism, seems to be rampant these days?
Yes, if 80 students could get the marks altered in the Common Admission Test, imagine. In India, the general feeling is “I will not be caught.” And even if the person is caught, our judicial system ensures that a case remains a case for years together. There is also constant news about plagiarism in the US b-schools. Some 100 students were recently refused admission because of plagiarism there. Not to forget that schools have also thrown out some students including Indian and Chinese ones for malpractices in the GMAT exam. I guess, this generation is highly competitive and wants things faster. It also means our value system is decaying.
The craze for an MBA is getting dangerous now?
Yes, and the government should think of it. It is not enough to just keep building schools in remote areas; you also need to add capacity to the existing ones. You need to better the facilities in the existing ones and encourage them to do better. Some colleges in rural Maharashtra have 40-50% seats while institutes are also closing down. The government has to intervene.
What else is planned for NMIMS?
We will move to the new campus by the year end. The campus will be a technological marvel with video streaming facilities in every room and intelligent blackboard facilities. We are also in the process of applying to a few international accreditation agencies, and getting the nod to a few others soon. We are also going to take our faculty number to 100 from the present 65. We also have some plans with our PhD programmes so that our students can opt to study in an international b-school for one year.
Previous Updates
Score Scam update: Main suspect in CAT case missing, previous NMIMS batch under scanner for impostors
(June 28, 2013) By Lajwanti D’Souza
Common ground
Though the respective police teams probing the CAT inflated scores scam (Kozhikode police) and the NMAT impostors con (Mumbai police) have not reached a conclusion, there is a strong hunch that they may be linked at some point. No, it has nothing to do with the fact that in the Common Admission Test ((CAT) case, so far 80 students’ scores have been found to be inflated and in the initial lot of impostors in the Narsee Monjee Management Aptitude Test (NMAT) case was also in the 80s (precisely 87).
That both the trails lead up to NCR, Rajasthan is the vital clue. While in the CAT case, the origin has been confirmed as Rajasthan, in the NMAT one, the kingpin is known to be holed up in Ghaziabad. According to police officials, both the regions and others in Delhi and NCR tend to serve as nodal centres for various such scams especially those in the education and recruitment sectors. Sources add that scams which involve agents and mediators tend to flourish more in the North since the supply for educational and job resources often exceed demand.
NMAT progress
Mumbai police have made little progress of the NMAT case after we reported it last. Discussions with students who chose impostors are still on and so is the chase for Bansal who was then at least Ghaziabad based. One of the senior officers who was on the case told us that he has stopped working on it as another important case has come his way. The Cyber Crime Cell which is the sole investigating agency said that search is on.
From the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) point of view however, there has been one big step. The institute has now also submitted names from the 2012-2014 batch for investigation to the police. So far only students from the 2011-2013 and 2013-2015 batches made it to the truant list, the additional names is of crucial consequence. This is because students from this group are right in the middle of finishing their MBA. The institute has already asked some of t hese students to stop coming to the institute.
This move also shows how deep-rooted the malady is and that the number of students which have taken help of impostors to enter NMIMS may go up to 200 as well.
CAT scam
A similar question is making the rounds in this scam as well. If it were not for an anonymous caller who warned of irregularities in the CAT score, would the wrongdoing have gone hidden? And were these part of irregularities in the earlier years as well? Nobody is able to answer that as there is no investigation done on that front. At some later point IIM officials hope to probe past records too.
Then
PaGaLGuY spoke to various people connected with the CAT exams over the years. What we found was that in 2010, CAT officials had put into place two agencies to make sure the scores were authentic. One was Web Weavers which was appointed in 2010 itself and another company called we45, a focused information security company which is Bangalore based. The process in place then was that post Prometric handing over the master list to the CAT authorities, the scores were checked and rechecked by both (Web Weavers and we45) and only then were they sent to the non-IIM institutes.
We spoke to a senior official from we45 who said that it is indeed better to have two agencies manning the scores. “It was our job to maintain the secrecy of the results and also ensure that the systems work properly.” The official added that hacking however can take place at any point and is a certain possibility, be it done intentionally or accidentally or even if it is a technical error.
In 2010, it was also a practice for CAT authorities to send scores to non-IIM institutes directly and not through an external agency like in the case of IIM-Kozhikode which entrusted the job to Web Weavers. This meant that the master data base was used to send scores to both, the IIMs as well as non-IIM schools.
IIM officials who worked closely with Web Weavers say that as a company that maintained the CAT site, it gave wonderful service. Paid Rs 25,000 per month, it was brought on board through a transparent tender service and “did full justice to its job.” The same officials add however that it is unlikely that Web Weavers would have anything to do with the scam. They think the changes in the rules in the subsequent years need to be probed. We asked why Web Weavers was even appointed in the first place when most government sites are managed by National Informatics Centre (NIC). To this we were told that IIMs do have the liberty to permit external agencies to run their site.
Now
Rules changed in 2011. While Web Weavers was retained, we45 was done away with. For all practical purposes, CAT 2011 was one smooth exam. Except for the normalisation rattle, there were little other protests from students or the public at large. Seeing this success story, CAT authorities decided to follow this pattern in 2012 as well.
Action in Calicut
As per practice put in place earlier a person from Web Weavers sat with CAT officials during the release of CAT scores. The person who worked with IIM-K CAT officials, whose name is Areef has disappeared. Hardly had the news of tampered CAT scores gone public, that Areef left Calicut in the dead of the night for Rajasthan. Police believe that he was good friends with an agent in Calicut who was also in touch with agents in Rajasthan, Delhi, and NCR who were part of this scam. Police are on Areef’s trail. IIM officials are certain that they are not holding Web Weavers accountable at this point. They say they have high regard for the company but that the error seems to have originated from the company’s end, is for certain, the officials add. Incidentally, Web Weavers is small company run by a handful of people.
Kozhikode District Police chief, Sarjan Kumar said that not only IIM-K computers seized but also those belonging to Web Weaver have been seized and are being examined. “We will study the activity from these computers on the day of the CAT results and before. They should provide the clue as to who exactly let this happen, when and how.”
Money trail
Police are certain there is a money trail involved. If not, scores would not have been inflated randomly. What the agents were honest with the students was that the admissions would not be secured for IIMs but non-IIMs higher up in the rankings. Police are unsure how much was paid per student as that chapter of investigation has not yet been opened. The police are also open to accept that while some students may have paid the money, some scores could also have been accidentally altered. This is because whether the computers were hacked or whether they were intentionally tampered with at the company’s end is still not clear.
A committee has been set up of IIM officials to probe the CAT inflated scores case. The team which comprises of Chairman of Indian Institute of Management, (IIM) Trichy, M. Damodaran, IIM Ahmedabad director-in charge Ajay Pandey and IIM Bangalore Dean (Academics) Devanath Tirupati is expected to meet next week.
The committee should look into the fact that if 80 students have got admission through fraudulent means, 80 others have been denied admission as well.
And this is what IIM authorities sent as a press release
Eighty of 2,14,068 CAT 2012 scores published by M/s. Web Weavers, Lucknow are found to have discrepancies. Web Weavers’ association with IIMs started from CAT 2010 onwards. Based on an anonymous complaint, the CAT center investigated and found that the CAT scores of 80 candidates were inflated on the official site www.catiim.in. This web site is hosted and managed by M/s. Web Weavers. It must be noted that IIMK is not responsible for any manipulations on the website. In fact, immediately after receiving the anonymous complaint the CAT convener conducted an investigation in a timely manner and after identifying the discrepancies an FIR was lodged based on which a police investigation is underway. IIMs are confident that whoever is found guilty of any unlawful acts would face legal consequences. It shall be noted that all the Institutes that use CAT scores for selection of candidates have been alerted. Subsequently, the CAT center has shared the CAT scores of the candidates from the master database to all the non-IIM Institutes who use CAT scores for their admission. A committee is setup by MHRD to fix accountability and take corrective measures.