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In this episode of 5 Live, watch the exclusive interview of the 19-year-old ethical hacker who hacked and exposed critical security flaws in CBSE's new digital evaluation system.
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00:00Hello and welcome, I'm Sodal Merotra Kapoor. You are with 5 Live.
00:04And we've got a very exciting lineup for you today because we start the program by listening in to the
00:13voice of one CBSC kid.
00:16This is not the one whose mark sheet got mixed up. This is somebody who warned CBSC.
00:21This is an ethical hacker, a class 12 student who pre-warned months ago to CBSC that listen, there's something
00:31wrong in the marking system.
00:33Please fix it. But of course, we know what happened to that warning.
00:39That hacker joins us on the program and we understand from him what else could have gone wrong.
00:46Remember, the re-evaluation window is now closed. What about the others?
00:52We look into all of that along with the entire CBSC marking mess.
00:56What exactly are these glitches that are really taking place?
01:00This is not a paper leak, remember. But in this one, the marking system is a marking mess.
01:07Teachers can't read the paper sometimes. Sometimes the papers are getting mixed up.
01:11Sometimes sheets are vanishing. CBSC students are left asking a lot of questions and we'll speak to them on the
01:20program.
01:21Also coming up on 5 Live, we look at the Gymkhana Club controversy.
01:26They have got no relief from the courts.
01:29But the government says that they shall not be evicted so quickly.
01:34What exactly does that mean? And where does it leave the members?
01:39We'll discuss that on the program.
01:40And also coming up on 5 Live, we bring you the tragic story of five women who have died in
01:48Rajasthan giving birth.
01:49Why? Because the oxytocin administered to them turned out to be faulty.
01:58That fake drug now under the scanner and questions being asked if that was the reason why five women have
02:08died immediately after giving birth.
02:12Those will be all the stories we'll be looking at.
02:14First up, let's take a look, as always, at the top headlines on Top of 5.
02:21It is Karnataka power play in the National Capital.
02:24Congress High Command is weighing a political reset in Karnataka, head of the 2028 Assembly election.
02:30Siddharamaya and his deputy D.K. Siddharamaya, along with their camp ministers and MLAs, are at the party office.
02:37And as we speak, Rahul Gandhi is meeting Mr. Karge and Kesey Vinokowal, while the CM and Deputy CM have
02:45been kept out.
02:50India and U.S. seal a strategic agreement on rare earths and critical minerals, aimed to ensure supply chain resilience
02:57in face of the China threat.
02:59Also, deal comes just two months after the U.S. ambassador announced something big at the India Today conclave.
03:08After petrol and diesel, now CNG prices have been increased by 2 rupees a kg in the National Capital, with
03:14the latest division of the CNG in Delhi now will cost 83 rupees per kg.
03:24Meanwhile, rape and murder convict Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh has been granted parole once again.
03:31He has been granted a 30-day parole this time, marking his 16th release since the 2017 crackdown in a
03:38rape case.
03:39Every time he is released, there is some election or the other happening in Punjab.
03:43So, what's really happening there?
03:45Meanwhile, an eviction deadline looms for the Gymkhana Club in Delhi.
03:49The Delhi High Court has denied immediate relief to the elite club.
03:53However, Centre has assured that possession would not be taken forcefully and that due legal process will be followed.
04:02Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr. Joseph will be, Vijay Joseph that is, will be meeting Prime Minister Modi in the
04:09National Capital on Wednesday.
04:11Vijay will also be beating Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Seetar Raman during his Delhi visit.
04:20Government has announced that the old M Aadhaar app will soon be discontinued.
04:26The move is part of a push by government to bring tighter security, better control over personal data and a
04:31more modern digital verification system to be used.
04:34But what happens to those who had already fed in their details?
04:39Also, after a viral social media post by a student exposed an apparent mix-up in answer sheets during re
04:45-evaluation,
04:45CBSE admits to discrepancies in the evaluation of Class 12th answer sheets and confirmed that marks will be revised.
04:52It's happened for two kids, but could there be more?
04:58A major healthcare scare has erupted in Rajasthan after multiple medicines failed quality tests.
05:03The drugs include the oxytocin injection used during childbirth.
05:08Authorities say that the critical active compound was missing from the batch used at Kota's Medical College,
05:15where four women have died post-delivery.
05:19And talking about health amid Ebola spread scare,
05:25now the DGC has issued detailed preparedness protocols as well.
05:29And for airlines operating flights linked to Uganda and Congo,
05:33these include health screening measures, onboard isolation procedures,
05:37and also compulsory self-declaration forms for passengers arriving to India from the affected countries.
05:48I want to bring to you the story of two students today.
05:52Student number one is Vedant Srivastava.
05:55He studied hard, sat for his Class 12th Physics Board examination,
05:59and got back marks that made no sense.
06:02So his family did the right thing and applied for a photocopy of his answer sheet.
06:06What came back was worse than no marks.
06:10It was someone else's handwriting, all together.
06:13It was not Vedant's.
06:16Now this is what CBSC's new digital evaluation system is all about,
06:21introduced this year to make board exams fairer, more transparent.
06:25Now marked another student's paper in Vedant's name,
06:30and then charged him to find out.
06:33Now he posted about it on X on the 23rd of May.
06:38He said, and I quote him here,
06:40I am a CBSC Class 12 student after receiving unexpectedly low marks in physics.
06:44We applied for photocopies of my answer sheets,
06:47and I am shattered because the physics answer sheet uploaded by CBSC is not mine.
06:53Now the stakes here are real.
06:56He was being awarded marks for answers he never wrote,
06:59and because of those marks, he was falling short of the 75% aggregate in PCM
07:04that many college admissions require.
07:10But then what happened?
07:12He just pointed out the discrepancy.
07:14But look what the Platform X did to him.
07:18Remember, Vedant did not have a Twitter account.
07:21His brother Siddhant created one to raise the issue
07:23because there was no formal mechanism to report the answer sheet that had been wrongly assigned,
07:29at least not the one that he knew of.
07:31But that became ammunition.
07:34Users questioned whether the account was even real.
07:37Some called Vedant anti-national,
07:40others called him Pakistani,
07:41pointing to the account's sort of region settings showing South Asia
07:46as supposed proof that the tweet had come from across the border.
07:52Siddhant responded to that.
07:54He said, and I quote him again,
07:56he says, I am the brother of Vedant,
07:58and I am appalled by seeing how people are calling us Pakistani.
08:01Yes, Vedant did not have a Twitter
08:02because he was busy studying instead of tweeting.
08:07There was politics over this.
08:08Rahul Gandhi also came into Vedant's defense,
08:11and, you know, the pileup really continued.
08:14Meanwhile, let's go back to what happened to his paper.
08:17That's what the story is all about.
08:19After the post that Vedant had put out
08:22crossed 2.5 million views,
08:24CBSC replied publicly on X,
08:27saying thank you for bringing your concern
08:29regarding your physics answer book to our attention.
08:31Upon review, the matter has been examined
08:33and that the correct copy of your answer book
08:35has been sent to your registered email address.
08:39Necessary action has also been undertaken.
08:42That was public admission on the same platform
08:45where Vedant had been called Pakistani just two days ago.
08:49But remember, Vedant is not the only one.
08:51Almost the same day, another student, Sanjana,
08:54posted that her chemistry answer sheet during re-evaluation
08:57did not match her handwriting.
08:58She had scored 11 out of 70 in chemistry.
09:02And what made her case even more specific
09:05is that the first page of her booklet
09:07carrying her personal details were there.
09:10Only the internal pages
09:11where someone else's writing was found.
09:16And she says it.
09:18She says, the roll number is mine,
09:19but not a single page inside appears to be mine.
09:22Again, CBSE confirmed her case too.
09:27Their email to her read
09:28that we have looked into the matter
09:29and found your concern to be correct.
09:32We have located your correct answer book.
09:34We will shortly be providing you
09:35the correct evaluation answer book of chemistry.
09:40Two students, two subjects,
09:42two very different kind of problems
09:44that came to them as well.
09:45Both confirmed by CBSE within days
09:48of being posted online.
09:51And when pressed,
09:53the CBSE source went on further to tell us this.
09:58Because, of course,
09:59media has been asking them questions.
10:01It is not about a single child,
10:03not only one student,
10:04but all such matters are being examined seriously.
10:07In some cases, the issue has also been resolved,
10:09has been the response by CBSE.
10:13If you listen to it carefully,
10:14it says cases already resolved.
10:20So, if I understand it correctly,
10:22that means there are more.
10:24Now, how did this even happen?
10:27So, this year,
10:28CBSE introduced on-screen marking
10:31for class 12th for the first time.
10:34OCMs, as they are called.
10:37Now, under this system,
10:39physical answer sheets are scanned
10:40by designated centers,
10:42student identities are masked digitally,
10:46and evaluators mark the scanned copies on-screen
10:49from anywhere in the country.
10:51So, the physical paper book doesn't really go.
10:54The system, actually,
10:55was built to improve fairness and speed.
10:59But it introduced a step
11:01that did not exist before.
11:03The moment a physical paper gets tagged
11:06to a roll number during scanning,
11:08if that tagging goes wrong,
11:10everything goes downstream.
11:12Evaluation marks, photocopy, re-evaluation.
11:15All of this is built on one error.
11:19And Sanjana's case gives a clue
11:21about where it broke.
11:23Because her cover page was correctly tagged,
11:26the inner pages were not hers.
11:28That points to a physical mismatch
11:31during the scanning stage itself.
11:33Sheets from different students
11:35bundled together
11:36before the machine even touched them.
11:38And there was no formal channel
11:40to report this kind of mistake.
11:41Remember,
11:42you could apply for re-evaluation
11:44for marks,
11:46but you could not tell CBSC
11:48that the sheet they evaluated
11:50was not yours.
11:52Because the only option Vedant had
11:54was to go online
11:56and get attention of the CBSC.
12:00Now, this is the question
12:02neither CBSC
12:03or any publicly available record
12:05has answered.
12:06Vedant got someone else's physics paper,
12:08Sanjana got someone else's chemistry paper,
12:09but whose?
12:11Think about it.
12:13If Vedant's sheet was sent to him by mistake,
12:15then his actual answer sheet
12:17was somewhere else?
12:19Evaluated under someone else's roll number?
12:22Possibly giving that student higher marks
12:23than they had earned for
12:24or even lower?
12:26That student may never have applied
12:28for a photocopy.
12:29They never even got to know.
12:30And that is where this step
12:32is being spoken about
12:35by two students
12:37and that starts in a larger problem
12:40and a larger question.
12:42If physics and chemistry sheets
12:43were getting mixed up during scranning,
12:45there is no reason to assume
12:46that it only happened twice.
12:48CBSC has not announced an audit.
12:50It has not said
12:51how many sheets were affected.
12:53It has not explained
12:54what it is doing for students
12:55who never posted on X,
12:57never went viral like these two.
13:00They simply accepted
13:02whatever marks came back.
13:04Now the board resolved the cases
13:06it could see.
13:07The ones it cannot see
13:09and the ones that should worry everyone
13:11are the ones
13:12that we are talking about today.
13:15But before I go into the detail,
13:17see the whole story,
13:18how it unfolds.
13:19Listen in to the kids
13:20because I've got a story for you
13:21on the other side
13:22that CBSC was warned.
13:25They were told this might happen
13:27and they still did nothing.
13:29I'll tell you that on the other side.
13:49For lakhs of Class 12 students,
13:51the stress did not end
13:53with board exams.
13:54It exploded after the results.
13:58This year,
14:00the CBSC shifted
14:01to a new on-screen marking system.
14:041.7 million students,
14:0610 million answer sheets,
14:08all scanned and evaluated digitally.
14:11The CBSC claimed
14:13the system would be faster,
14:15transparent, accurate.
14:17But students claimed
14:19the exact opposite.
14:21Some alleged
14:22they received
14:23somebody else's answer sheet.
14:26Class 12 students
14:27Vidant and Sanjana
14:29took to social media
14:30claiming the answer sheets
14:32shared by the CBSC
14:33were not theirs.
14:38Vidant faced
14:39massive online trolling
14:40and was even labelled
14:42a Pakistani.
14:45After outrage erupted online,
14:47CBSC acknowledged the issue
14:49on May 25th,
14:50uploaded the correct answer sheet
14:52and issued revised marks.
14:55We have seen the results.
14:57There are some subjects
14:58that have been 90 years
14:59and others have been 80 years.
15:00Some of them have been
15:01very much of our marks.
15:03In some of them,
15:04there are some subjects
15:05that have been failed.
15:06Some of the students
15:07have been failed.
15:07There are 75% criteria
15:08that have not been completed.
15:09That's why we saw the OSM
15:12checking,
15:12which was newly introduced
15:13to CBSC.
15:14Then, it started to come
15:15to that point.
15:17Maybe there are such a big gap
15:20for all students' marks.
15:20So what did you apply for your revaluation and rechecking?
15:23I took two subjects, maths and accountancy, which I didn't get in my sheet.
15:28I expected that I was going to be 90 plus, but I didn't come according to my marks.
15:35I also did that for 3,000 days.
15:38Now, the amount was paid, but the paper didn't come.
15:42There is more.
15:44The revaluation portal crashed repeatedly before the deadline ended on Monday.
15:49Payments kept failing.
15:58Scanned copies arrived blurry and unreadable.
16:03The crisis became so severe that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan confirmed
16:08IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur had been called in to fix technical glitches.
16:15IIT Kanpur and IIT Chennai, IIT Madras will look into the technical glitches faced by CBSE portal, but today it
16:28is functioning smoothly.
16:29Those who are applied for the revaluation, they will get scan copy.
16:37Even evaluators are now raising questions.
16:41Veteran physics teacher G.K. Shivastav, who checked answer sheets this year claims the system was rolled out in haste.
16:51CBSC has done this system very quickly.
16:57At least, it should have been 6-7 months.
17:01Then, the applicants, the students who have been examined,
17:05the expectations of their marks were reduced.
17:07Because in checking, the first step marking was made,
17:10when they were manually checked,
17:11the step marking was made,
17:13but in checking, there were a lot of problems.
17:17For lakhs of students, this isn't just a technical glitch.
17:23It's anxiety, uncertainty,
17:26and a fight for the marks they believe they earned.
17:31With Anmol Bali, Bureau Report, India Today.
17:37Now, while the likes of Class 12 students are staring at their mark sheets in absolute disbelief,
17:42one question keeps coming.
17:44Could this have been avoided?
17:47On the programme today, we are going to meet the boy who may have the answer.
17:52He's a Class 12 student himself, in fact, just finished his board exams.
17:56And months before the controversy blew up,
17:59he had already found critical vulnerabilities in a very portal that was used to evaluate the answer sheets.
18:08He flagged it.
18:10He warned the CBSC.
18:11He did everything right.
18:14But look where we are.
18:16That ethical hacker now joins us on the programme.
18:21He has requested that his face be blurred.
18:23So, let me just bring him on.
18:29Hi there.
18:30I also have a couple of other students and teachers with me,
18:34but let me go to him first.
18:38I want to understand from you, Mr. Ethical Hacker,
18:43what, why did you even think of sort of testing the system this time around?
18:50How did it start?
18:52So, I started doing ethical hacking really young when I was 13 or 14.
18:57And I was also attending 12 board exams this year.
19:02And when CBSC announced that everything will be done digitally and there will be a portal and all,
19:08I looked up the circulars and it just sparked my curiosity.
19:11The portal was online and it wasn't IP-dated.
19:14Like anyone with any IP address can access it.
19:16So, I accessed the portal.
19:18I started playing with the network requests and stuff.
19:20But I didn't have any password or credentials to log in as I'm not a teacher.
19:24That's common.
19:25So, I just like extracted the code which is available on the front end of the website.
19:30I downloaded the code.
19:32I started reading what's in the code.
19:34And then I just used a search function.
19:39And then I just started reading the logic around passwords, OTP, how they've been processed.
19:46And then I came across the most disastrous part which was the master password being hardcoded.
19:53I used that password and I could log in as any examiner with their user ID.
19:59So, I tried to log in as an examiner.
20:02I recorded it and I was successfully able to log in.
20:05And there was an option to change dates also.
20:07And I could grade people myself.
20:09Like I could put marks, as many marks I want, as much marks I want.
20:12So, I recorded all of it, sent it to certain, like computer emergency response team of Indian government.
20:18They asked for more details.
20:20I gave them all of the details I had.
20:21I also found other vulnerabilities after I got into their system.
20:26And I documented all of them.
20:28It was like five or six vulnerabilities.
20:30And I informed certain...
20:32How long did it take for you to identify these glitches?
20:37Not much long.
20:38Two or three hours max.
20:39The first one took like 30 minutes max, I think.
20:43Okay.
20:44So, it took you 30 minutes, or maybe a little longer, to hack into the CBSC's answer sheet system.
20:53Now, help me understand what all were the vulnerabilities that you found there.
20:57And this was done in Feb, if I'm not wrong, from what you told me.
21:00In February...
21:0225th.
21:0325th.
21:03Okay.
21:0325th of Feb is when you tried this exercise.
21:05You could hack into the system.
21:07You got the master password.
21:08And then you could log in as any teacher and make changes.
21:10What all changes could you make?
21:14I could change teacher's name, their phone number.
21:16I could see their emails.
21:17I also could like put bank details.
21:19There was an option for bank.
21:20I think the CBSC paid teachers separately to grade the papers.
21:24I think that's why it was there.
21:26I could put marks on the sheets assigned to that teacher.
21:30That was the most scary part of all in the system.
21:36Am I understanding you correctly that you could change the marks of students?
21:40Yes, I could.
21:42I could put grades in there.
21:43Like, there was an option to start checking the papers.
21:46I mean, I was impersonating an actual examiner.
21:49And I could do anything an evaluator can do.
21:53All right.
21:54Am I, okay, I'm asking you that again because I think you should make that clear.
21:58You're saying in February of this year, before the examinations actually took place,
22:03you hacked into the CBSC system and you could change the marks of whoever you wanted.
22:09Examinations were going on.
22:11Was going on.
22:12In the middle of it, you could change the marks.
22:14Yes.
22:16Okay, let me ask you this.
22:19Some 17 lakh students give this paper.
22:23When the re-evaluation opened this time, in the first three hours,
22:27three lakh re-evaluation requests had already gone.
22:32Now, we only know about the cases of these two, Vedant and Sanjana,
22:36that we just pointed out in the program.
22:38If the re-evaluation did take place under the same system,
22:42could it still be hacked?
22:44Is it still vulnerable as we speak?
22:48It was vulnerable last night.
22:50Like, I only reported five or six vulnerabilities.
22:53They only fixed one.
22:54And I sent another report last night about another vulnerability I found last night,
22:58which was really severe.
22:59And they took all the portals down.
23:02Like, there were five or six mirrors of the portal.
23:04And those are down to right now, as we speak.
23:09Okay, so you pointed out five or six discrepancies.
23:12One was fixed.
23:14And what was the reply?
23:16When you did flag it off, whose did you send out all your findings to?
23:22No.
23:22I sent it to certain.
23:23I also notified CVHC separately.
23:25I asked them how can I report security vulnerabilities in a system.
23:29Back then, in February, they didn't reply.
23:32Certain just said thank you.
23:33And they said they will flag it to CVHC, the vendor, whatever.
23:36I also notified the vendor which manages the platform.
23:40They also didn't reply.
23:43No reply from them?
23:45No.
23:46No reply from CVHC or the vendor.
23:47Only certain reply.
23:49And that's just a simple thank you.
23:51So that's like an automated reply then?
23:54Not an automated reply.
23:55It's a human reply, I'm pretty sure.
23:57But it's just a boilerplate acknowledgement they sent.
24:00I see.
24:01Are you surprised now when all these paper marking mix-ups is happening?
24:06Or would you say you just saw it coming back then in Feb?
24:10I'm not really surprised considering how negligent they are.
24:15Yeah.
24:17And Nisagra, if I can say you're a class 12 student yourself?
24:21Yes.
24:22If you could hack it in 30 minutes,
24:24would you say there are several other kids like you who could have done it?
24:29Yes.
24:30Might be if someone just spent a little bit of time examining the site,
24:34how it's working and all, they could help.
24:36It wasn't really hard to hack.
24:37It was one of the easiest hacks of my life.
24:42It was one of the easiest hacks of your life.
24:45Yes.
24:46To hack into the CBSE OSM system.
24:47Yes.
24:48I also wrote about it in my blog.
24:50And it was really easy.
24:52You don't even need to know programming.
24:54You just need control plus F.
24:56Just look at the logic, how the password is being processed and just put the password.
24:59That was it.
25:00That was the first vulnerability.
25:02These are more technical.
25:03But that was the master vulnerability anyone could have used to alter the grades.
25:10You are a class 12 student.
25:11Talk to me now, not as an ethical hacker, but a student.
25:15How do you feel when the exam you prepared so hard for is A, so poorly planned and B, even
25:26when warnings are sent by ethical hackers, by people who mean well, by students who mean
25:34well, like you, the system still looks the other way.
25:40I'm just speechless.
25:41I actually saw it coming because I have other friends who reported other vulnerabilities to
25:45Indian government long back.
25:47And they also didn't get in reply.
25:49And they were also ignored.
25:50And they also said, this bureaucracy or this negligency.
25:54So I'm just not really surprised.
25:56I'm just disappointed.
25:57What can I even say?
26:00Do you want to say something to the CBSC heads, to the education minister today?
26:05I just hope that they take students more seriously, their privacy, their security more seriously.
26:11Because this is just pretty sad to see.
26:14This is a national level examinations.
26:16All the class 12 students are attending it.
26:19And anyone can break in and edit the marks.
26:21It's just disappointing.
26:24You see it on this.
26:26All right, Nisarga.
26:27Thank you so much for speaking with us.
26:30Thank you for doing this.
26:32I'm sorry that the system failed you.
26:34We all know.
26:35We've all given class 10th to our 12th examination.
26:38We know how hard it is.
26:39We know what a harrowing time it is in a student's life.
26:43So thank you for doing the right thing.
26:45For warning the system.
26:47It is a system that has failed you today.
26:49And that's a story that we'll have to pick up from here.
26:53Thank you, Nisarga.
26:54Thank you, Nisarga.
26:54Thank you, Nisarga.
26:57All right.
26:58That is Nisarga.
27:00He is saying it took him precisely 30 minutes.
27:06That's all.
27:07To break into the system.
27:09Joining me next are a couple of more students.
27:13CBSC students and also a teacher.
27:15Let me go to the students first to understand from them.
27:20I believe Sparsh is with us.
27:21He's a CBSC student as well.
27:23Sparsh, you just heard.
27:2430 minutes is all it took for a class 12th student to hack into the system.
27:31I want to ask you, now that the re-evaluation window has shut.
27:3625th was the last, if I'm not wrong.
27:38Yes, yes.
27:39What do the rest of the kids who are now feeling absolutely vulnerable do at this point?
27:45Are you guys speaking about it?
27:47What is it that you want now?
27:51First of all, I personally feel that it is a lot at once coming at the students.
27:58The NEET league.
27:59And I know my friends.
28:02The COT examination centers, they have been admitted so far away, kilometers away.
28:07And then the CBSC.
28:08I think there is a lot of stress that is going on in the students.
28:13Because we as students, we give our whole day, our whole year.
28:17We have been working for this whole year for this exam.
28:20And I think for our parents, they are not so technical.
28:24They only see the marks and they think, okay.
28:27Students say that they have been working, but at the end, this is your mark.
28:31Then you must be lying.
28:32They don't trust us.
28:33So I personally feel that there is a lot of stress.
28:36There is a lot of anxiety going on in the students.
28:39And I personally feel that in this crucial time, when the mistake is yours, not ours.
28:45We expect excellence from students.
28:47Students should do this, students should do that.
28:50But when it's your mistake, first of all, our fees increased.
28:56It was 700 per subject.
28:59So it was horrible.
29:00After that, everyone raised their voices.
29:02After that, the prices were reduced.
29:06That was commendable.
29:08But even after the date that they given us, the CBSC website kept crashing.
29:13I was there from around 2 p.m.
29:16Till 12 a.m. of night.
29:18I was trying the whole time to give my payment, but I could not.
29:22It wasted my whole three years.
29:25I am a coaching student.
29:26It wasted my three years, three days, and I could not do the payment.
29:31At the very last day, I had to wake up at 3 a.m. to do the registration.
29:37After that, I got my answers.
29:39And the checking was horrible.
29:42Even the answers that are exactly the same word-to-word in the answer key that is published by the
29:47CBSC,
29:47they have not given me a single mark.
29:50And the questions, like in the question paper, basically they give us options.
29:55Either you can do A part or B part.
29:57And I have only attempted one.
29:59If you attempt both, one of them is marked as an extra answer.
30:04So I have only attempted one, yet they have marked it as an extra answer and they have not given
30:10me marks for that.
30:11And I don't know how to solve that because I can't do that through revaluation.
30:17They have given me the marks, but they have not put it because they have showed it as an extra
30:22answer.
30:24Let me go to CS Gautam. He's a teacher and PGT English at Horizon.
30:30Sir, let me ask you this.
30:33The OCM system seems, in the right spirit at least, so that, you know, if you ask of photocopies,
30:40you can actually see how the evaluation has taken place, which has never been the case before.
30:45So in spirit, it seems like the right move.
30:47But at the moment, it looks like a horrible execution.
30:51What are you telling your kids, who will all question now how they got their marks, especially after listening to
30:59the hacker?
31:02Can I start, ma'am?
31:04Yes, tell me, sir.
31:06Yes, yes, ma'am.
31:07Actually, technical glitches are apart.
31:10But, students, in 2026, CBSC, it is not the first time that CBSC has conducted this online system checking.
31:18In 2016-17, also, it was done.
31:22What I am telling you, what I have been observing, the CBSC part, CBSC must have conducted one or two
31:28or more workshops for the training to the teachers, evaluators.
31:32This was not done.
31:34But, ma'am, students naturally will blame the CBSC or the technical issues or this thing is fine.
31:41But after all, ma'am, I would like to say that the human beings are only evaluators. Software is not
31:47evaluating the answer sheets.
31:49And according to me, I think we must train the students how to write the answers.
31:58If online system goes on.
31:59Ma'am, but they had written the answers. The kids wrote the answers. No.
32:03It got scanned wrongly. Then it got published wrongly. Then there is a mix-up over there.
32:09So, how do we talk about the students?
32:12Ma'am, when they write the children, they need to give the training.
32:16They need to scan this answer sheet.
32:19First of all, chronological order they must be keeping in mind.
32:24Because the question number, they write on the left margin.
32:27So, to align the left margin, sometimes, the screen is 15 centimetres.
32:33It is not sometimes.
32:36It is very easy to criticize the system or this thing.
32:41But we should train the students as well as teachers also for this system.
32:46Ma'am, sir, then the students should also have been trained by the same system, right?
32:50The students should have been. I am amazed.
32:52I am amazed you are putting it back on the students right now that students should be trained.
32:56I am sorry that training had to be provided by the CBSC and by the schools and by the teachers.
33:01How can you say the students should have been trained properly?
33:04Let me go to Ibrahim and Ojas at this point.
33:07Go tell us, tell us, tell us.
33:08One minute, I want to go back to the students, sir.
33:11I want to go to Ojas at this point.
33:13Ojas, after listening to everybody right now, what's going on in your mind?
33:22First of all, I think if the things that were said here just now were to be made available to
33:28each and every CBSC student, then I can easily expect a mass protest happening in Delhi tomorrow.
33:33That the system that is governing their future is easily hackable in barely 30 minutes.
33:41Then that's not really, you know, hopeful thing for the students.
33:46Their future hangs on what? A system that is easily hackable and changeable in barely 30 minutes.
33:52Imagine what a professional hacking firm can do.
33:54It can easily alter the students' results according to what they wish and yet we can't do anything against it.
34:01As our friend just said that he could have easily changed not only the grades but as well as the
34:09bank details.
34:11Then I want to ask the CBSC that what right now is your job?
34:19Is it to create this feeling of hope for the students or is it to create a moment of disaster
34:27that is happening right now for the future?
34:34Ibrahim, I want to understand how the students are feeling about this.
34:38I want to understand from you guys how it leaves you thinking about the CBSC at the moment.
34:50I am just by listening the guy who just hacked the system.
34:53He said he is the class 12th student and he just hacked the system of a whole country in just
34:5930 minutes.
35:00I am very scared to say that what will happen in the future if a professional hacker can destroy the
35:05whole system.
35:07A student who is just a teenager who can hack the system and change everything, change our detail, change, fluctuate
35:13our numbers.
35:14What can a professional hacker do to us? That scared me a very bit ma'am.
35:20And one more thing that I would like to add is that digitalization was a really nice step that was
35:26taken by the government.
35:28It was done in really good spirit.
35:29But I think the testing should have been done on a local level first.
35:34CBSC right now made us beta testers of a system that was not properly tested.
35:39It should have been instead implemented on a much lower scale of, you could have asked it to grade 6th
35:45or 7th class papers instead of just forcing it on 12th.
35:49Yes.
35:51They could have just asked it to grade lower grade students papers first and see how does it go.
35:56But no, they forced it upon 12th graders who have their whole life decided by this OSM that was introduced.
36:03Yeah. I want to come to Gautam sir there. Gautam sir, you know CBSC is a board that I have
36:09admired all these years.
36:12They are innovative, they come out with new things, things like sugar board that they brought in, innovation on technique,
36:20etc.
36:20This is a system that wants to keep up with time.
36:23It seems like they want to do the right thing, but they, you have to admit that they have got
36:28it horribly wrong this time,
36:30because the confidence of the kids is shaken up.
36:35Ma'am, around 3% result has been declined. Right ma'am, this year.
36:41So, totally we are blaming CBSC and the system.
36:45The timing setting was not according to the students or this thing is fine.
36:51But ma'am, evaluation system is not to criticize.
36:55That again I am telling you that they are human, they are, the copies are evaluated by the human beings,
37:00by the teachers only, ma'am.
37:02It's not that the software is doing this work.
37:05So, students must write their question numbers in, in the center as well as in the chronological order.
37:13I have seen many times the students are attempting say question number second.
37:17So, second A, second B, second C, then suddenly they bring, they are left, two, three parts are left, but
37:23they start question number third, then B, then C.
37:26And one more thing I am telling you, that physical copy is more legible to read, rather than scanned copies.
37:35So, physical copy...
37:37No, but it might not be leaking, but there are glitches.
37:42I want to understand and let me take that question, let me take that question to the hacker at the
37:46point.
37:46Tell me this, at the moment, the education minister says that there are teams in IIT, Kanpur, etc., who will
37:53be sitting down to evaluate what went wrong.
37:56What do you see coming out of this evaluation? Can they fix it at this point at all?
38:03I mean the vulnerabilities I had reported were easily fixable.
38:07Like, I could personally fix it in one hour or two hour max, and any AI agent like Claude can
38:12fix it.
38:15But, it's just sad, like I gave them three months of time and they still didn't fix anything.
38:21And I hope they fix it, considering the portal is down, I hope they are working on it.
38:27All right, I think you've had the last word there.
38:31He hacked it in 30 minutes, could fix it in a few hours as well.
38:35Why didn't the CBSC?
38:37And my question is simple, look at the numbers.
38:4117 lakh students gave the CBSC examination this time around.
38:45When the portal for re-evaluation opened, three lakh applied in just three hours.
38:51Look at the percentage of students who were unhappy.
38:55We are looking at the story of just Vedant and one more girl, no?
39:00They're just looking at the story of Sanjana and Vedant.
39:02What about several others?
39:05Have they really got their due?
39:07And now that CBSC has shut down its revaluation window, what about those who don't know where to go?
39:13And to top it all, it's not just about the CBSC.
39:16Look at the way Twitter gets after you the minute you point out a flaw.
39:21A student is called a Pakistani?
39:25An entire bot army attacks him and says, just because he's putting out his point of view?
39:31What are we requiring really?
39:37We've got to really get to the bottom of this because this is not just about the paper mismatch of
39:45two or three students.
39:47This is about destroying hopes of lakhs of students.
39:51Everybody who has given a class 12th examination will tell you how stressful it is, the amount of sacrifice goes
39:58into it, and the amount of effort that each kid, in fact, each family puts into it.
40:04And then for the system to fail them, the way they have, the Education Minister has to answer.
40:12On that, we are getting some updates on this story.
40:15Let's quickly take a look at that.
40:16I'm told that the Education Minister, Dharmeetra Pradhan, today has held detailed discussions with senior officials of the four major
40:23public sector banks,
40:25SBI, Bank of Baroda, Canada Bank and India Bank, regarding the overall in the CBSE payment gateway system.
40:33And during this meeting, we are told that the Minister emphasized the need for a robust, reliable and student-friendly
40:39payment ecosystem, particularly for post-examination services, such as re-evaluation.
40:47Pertaining to those photocopies of answer sheets and other fee-based processes.
40:54In short, what does this mean?
40:57The Education Minister has now held discussions with senior officials of the banks.
41:03This includes SBI, Bank of Baroda, Canada and Indian Bank, and saying fix the system.
41:08But what will they do?
41:10Can I go back to the students on this story?
41:12What will they do?
41:13Because the window has shut, am I right?
41:15The window for re-evaluation is shut.
41:17And those who missed it, those who missed it, missed it, right?
41:29Let me go to Sparsh.
41:31Sparsh is somebody who was up till 3 o'clock in the morning to actually make a payment for his
41:36re-evaluation.
41:38Sparsh, when you hear the Education Minister today to say that he has had a chat, it possibly cannot have
41:45an impact on the examination that is already over.
41:48Yeah, exactly.
41:49So all those kids, there is no room for them.
41:51There is no room to mend for them.
41:54Why so late?
41:55If you had to implement all these changes, they had to be done before.
42:00If you had to update the website, it had to be updated before the dates you had given.
42:04The dates you had given, that was the time they had removed the link and they had said that the
42:10upside is under ablation.
42:11And they kept removing it, they kept keeping it in ablation.
42:15Why is it going on when you have given the time for us to re-evaluate?
42:20That's unfair.
42:21If you want to give us the opportunity, give us the proper opportunity.
42:30Right.
42:31Can I get a quick reaction from Ojas and Ibrahim as well?
42:36Ojas, what do you make of this story that has come out, the news update that has come out, that
42:41the Education Minister is now holding meetings with the banks?
42:47Ojas, I think that there should not have been a payment that should have been necessary for re-evaluation in
42:54the first place.
42:55I mean, I know that it is done so that not all the students start asking for re-evaluation.
43:00But once it became clear that many students are facing issues with the new system, then they should have removed
43:07it entirely.
43:08No payment should have been necessary for the glitches that were found in CVSC.
43:12Why should I be held responsible and why should I pay money whenтАж
43:16Very quickly, before I go to my colleague Piyush Misha, do you guys think that the re-evaluation portal should
43:22be reopened?
43:30Ibrahim?
43:34Yes ma'am.
43:35Ibrahim, do you think that the re-evaluation should be reopened?
43:36Yes ma'am, it should be reopened.
43:37Many students are facingтАж
43:45Every student who has given the exam should be able to re-evaluate his exam because he has worked hard
43:51whole year.
43:52And now they are taking a lot of money to re-check his exam.
43:58Now it is becoming a problem.
44:00So, for my side, I think it should be reopened.
44:04All right, let me go across to my colleague Piyush as well who is joining us and bringing all these
44:08details from the Education Ministry.
44:09Piyush, what will happen now?
44:11Holding meetings right now, what purpose does it solve?
44:14The re-evaluation window is closed.
44:16Students can't make those claims anymore.
44:20But yes, the important meeting was shared a couple of minutes back, but they have now been communicated officially from
44:27the Ministry of Education.
44:28I mentioned that the Union Education Minister, Dharavan Pradhan, chaired this meeting, in which there were various stakeholders from major
44:37public sector banks, including SBI from the officials of the Bank of Baroda,
44:43General Bank, and also Indian Bank, they were the officials present from these banks.
44:48And during the meeting, what we are now learning is that the Minister has emphasized the need for a robust,
44:53reliable, and student-friendly payment ecosystem,
44:56particularly for post-examination services such as re-evaluation, obtaining photocopies of answer sheets, and other free-based processes.
45:05So that is one of the directions that have also been issued.
45:08And today, during the today's meeting, there were no officials from CBC were present.
45:12But yes, officials from different banks were present.
45:16And the main purpose was regarding the overall of the Central Board of Secondary Education payment system.
45:24Now we'll have to see how things are further going to improve.
45:27But in the last few days, we have seen how Union Education Minister Dharavan Pradhan has been holding a series
45:33of meetings.
45:33I think that yesterday also he had issued two directions to the CBSE officials, and today he has held between
45:38which officials from this and back.
45:41All right, Piyush Mishra there, thank you so much for joining us.
45:44To all our guests as well, I have to thank you now.
45:46But what is the story at the moment?
45:49The CBSE OSM system has completely failed the students this year.
45:55There are questions on how the marking was done.
45:58There are questions on how evaluation took place.
46:01Some three lakh students filed for re-evaluation in just the starting three hours.
46:06The number goes up.
46:07And they are asking, what about our paper?
46:10What we also haven't heard is a clear answer from the CBSE.
46:14What happens to those who are still not convinced?
46:16Because you've shut the re-evaluation window.
46:19Questions to the CBSE continue to remain.
46:22And students of CBSE exam have loads to say.
46:26The hacker on the program has told us very clearly that in 30 minutes, he hacked into the system.
46:32He could change the marks.
46:35He could change the grades.
46:37He could change the bank details.
46:39And it took him just 30 minutes to do it.
46:41He also says he could have fixed it in three minutes, in three hours.
46:46And he did all this in FIB.
46:49He raised the alarm.
46:51Sent it to the CBSE.
46:52He said, fix the system.
46:53Our future is at stake.
46:55But the CBSE clearly could not do so.
46:59We leave it there for the moment.
47:00Thanks so much for joining us.
47:01We'll see you again tomorrow.
47:02Bye-bye.
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