The Railways may consider NSEIT Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange, to conduct a part of its exams, as it readies for the next leg of recruitment in one of the largest hiring exercises globally.

The move is aimed at widening the pool of agencies that can conduct online exams for the Railways. This means that the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which was the sole exam-conducting agency for the Railways, may have to face stiff competition and is likely to share the mandate with a second agency.

The NSEIT deals with various aspects of computer software and hardware that includes designing, developing, maintaining, marketing, buying, importing, exporting and licensing them. It had reported a net profit of ₹18 crore in fiscal 2018.

Online exams

The market size for online exams, estimated at ₹2,500 crore a year, is expanding, as it shrinks the time for conducting exams and declaring results. It also minimises the physical logistics involved of carrying the documents to the exam centres.

In India, more exams are increasingly being held online. Several companies — TCS iON, Sify, NSEIT and newer firms — are looking to widen their foothold in conducting online exams in an efficient manner.

The NSEIT has also made its mark by conducting exams for the Railway Police Force, which involved 70 lakh candidates, 700 centres spread across 400 cities. It has also invested in a security operations centre. Among its other expertise, the NSEIT has started automating its process for pre- and post-examination tasks.

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