India blocks Telegram before retest exam to curb cheating

India blocked access to the Telegram messenger app on Tuesday ahead of a retest of a nationwide medical college entrance examination, following a scandal last month over a question paper leak. The failure of the hugely competitive exam, along with a separate marking fiasco in high school tests, sparked outrage and fuelled youth protests demanding the education minister’s resignation. The electronics ministry issued the order restricting access to Telegram until Monday, the day of the retest. Message-editing features, which allow users to alter existing posts, will remain restricted until June 30. “Both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates,” India’s National Testing Agency (NTA) said in a statement. The National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) is one of the country’s most competitive exams, attracting more than two million aspiring doctors. The NEET exam was scrapped in May following allegations that the question paper was leaked in advance, including reports that it had been circulated through Telegram channels. Responding to the electronics ministry’s decision, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said the week-long ban “hasn’t stopped anything” but “punishes” 150 million ordinary users of the messaging app in India and “not the insiders who leaked the exam materials”. “The leaks just moved to other apps,” Durov said in a post on X. The Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group, said the ban “is a disproportionate answer to exam fraud”. The intense pressure to succeed in the national exams has fuelled a lucrative industry, with tens of thousands of coaching centres across the country. Fierce competition means that success often comes at a high personal and financial cost — creating opportunities for criminal networks seeking to sell leaked examination papers to the highest bidder. Test pilots India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested