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    CBSE OSM row Jharkhand student tender analyis
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    Gen Z student from Jharkhand has taken on the CBSE publishing his data analysis on their tender process in a blog, which has gained traction nation-wide and sparking of public anger and a political row 

    CBSE OSM row: Student alleges rule changes in tender to favour Coempt over TCS

    CBSE OSM row has now moved from blurry answer sheets to a serious showdown, after Jharkhand student combed through 576 public records to allege tender manipulation

    The Federal
    31 May 2026 10:18 AM IST  (Updated:2026-05-31 06:54:54)

    The ongoing controversy over Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)'s On-Screen Marking system took another serious turn as a 17-year-old Jharkhand student’s investigation alleged that tender norms were diluted and security safeguards scaled back, to give a Hyderabad-based firm, Coempt Eduteck the (OSM) contract.

    Describing himself simply as “one of the 17 lakh students affected by the On Screen Marking system", Sarthak Sidhant turned investigator after receiving blurred and incomplete scans of his own answer sheets. Dissatisfied with his results, Sidhant spent days cross-referencing official CBSE bidding documents on the public procurement portal, meticulously tracking changes across three successive versions of the tender.
    And, Sidhant published his findings on his website (sarthaksidhant.com/coempt) under the title, ‘How CBSE rewrote rules to favour Coempt EduTeck’.
    Now, Sidhant’s findings have quickly gained immense traction online, fundamentally shifting the narrative. The public conversation has now shifted away from grievances such as blurred digital answer sheets, missing pages, and blatant evaluation errors. It has now transformed into a high-stakes debate over transparency, institutional integrity, and potential collusion in the awarding of the multi-crore contract itself.

    What Sidhant alleges

    The Jharkhand student alleges that the board systematically altered eligibility criteria and technical benchmarks across three successive bidding rounds to benefit the eventual contract winner - Coempt EduTeck Private Limited. “This is a story of how a massive public institution deliberately played with students' futures by rewriting its own rulebook,” Sidhant wrote in his blog. According to him, there are fifteen discrepancies.

    Both the CBSE and Coempt EduTeck have strongly denied any wrongdoing in rebuttals to Hindustan Times.


     There were at least 15 discrepancies, as per my blog.”

    Three key discrepancies

    His central allegation is that the technical and eligibility benchmarks for the multi-crore OSM contract were progressively lowered across three Request for Proposal (RFP) rounds, appearing tailored specifically to fit the profile of Coempt EduTeck.
    "The first discrepancy is that there were three clauses of ‘poor performance’ which were completely wiped out from the new RFP," Sidhant told ANI.
    "In the earlier RFP, there was a clause called ‘blacklisted earlier’ whereas in the new RFP, it was changed to ‘blacklisted currently’. Why would the board want a service provider which was blacklisted earlier?"
    Secondly, the minimum revenue threshold was set at ₹50 crore, a barrier Sidhant points out the winning vendor cleared by a razor-thin margin of just 1.7 per cent.

    Thirdly, Sidhant further alleged that the board systematically altered the project criteria to disadvantage larger, established vendors. It shows a pattern that the industry giant TCS was not preferred, but Coempt was preferred, which works as a very fragmented group of institutions,” he told news agency ANI, pointing to what he claims was a deliberate bias against major IT firms.

    Coempt EduTech under focus

    Sidhant’s findings focus heavily on the winning vendor, Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck. His blog alleges that Coempt was previously known as Globarena Technologies—the controversial firm at the center of the 2019 Telangana Intermediate Examination disaster, where major software and evaluation glitches derailed the results of thousands of students and triggered widespread public outrage.

    Also read: CBSE OSM row takes new turn amid claims of students being pressured to defend it online

    Sidhant claims that after the Telangana crisis, Globarena rebranded as Coempt EduTeck, and that CBSE has alleedly progressively diluted its tender requirements across successive bidding rounds to accommodate this specific firm's profile.

    Flagging other issues

    Further, Sidhant also raised why the mandatory Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification requirement was reportedly reduced from Level 5 to Level 3.

    The cooling-off period for engaging retired CBSE officials was reduced from two years to one year

    Experience requirements were modified from handling projects involving at least five lakh students to broader cumulative project experience criteria.

    Ownership requirements for data centres were replaced with provisions allowing third-party cloud infrastructure.

    Penalty provisions shifted focus from scanning errors and quality issues towards delays in project execution.

    The previously stated maximum error rate of 0.5 per cent was removed.

    Technical specifications for scanning infrastructure were reportedly relaxed.

    Certain cybersecurity and testing requirements, including vulnerability assessment and penetration testing certifications, were allegedly altered or removed.

    Three tenders

    According to Sidhant's digital footprint analysis, the procurement process unfolded in three distinct stages over 2025:

    First Round (February 2025): The initial tender was issued but later mysteriously vanished from the public Government e-Marketplace (GeM) records, leaving no official archive. Second Round (May 2025): A second tender attracted four major bidders, including tech giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Coempt. However, all four failed the technical evaluation, forcing CBSE to scrap the round entirely.

    Third Round (August 2025): The board issued a final, revised tender. It was in this round that Coempt EduTeck successfully emerged as the winning bidder, following several critical alterations to the bidding criteria.

    Also read: CBSE OSM row debate | ‘Students are losing trust in the government’

    A third tender was subsequently issued in August 2025, with Coempt Eduteck eventually emerging as the successful bidder.

    Bigger debate

    The controversy has now entered the political arena. High-profile leaders, including Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, have amplified these findings, demanding immediate answers from the government regarding the integrity of the tender process.
    Also, with the mounting public anger, the CBSE controversy has fundamentally shifted. It has evolved from an initial dispute over erratic marks and faulty evaluations into a much wider debate over institutional accountability, public procurement ethics, and the eroding trust in one of India’s most vital educational institutions.

    What CBSE said

    Defending its procurement process, CBSE officials maintain that the board followed all government protocols "scrupulously" and that the contract was awarded to the lowest qualified bidder under a standard Quality-and-Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) framework.
    Speaking to Hindustan Times, a senior board official argued that the modifications made across the tender rounds should "not be seen as a rushed exercise, but as a process of correcting shortcomings from earlier rounds to achieve better results."
    Reinforcing this stance, a second CBSE official stated that the winning company "was not blacklisted by any government agency and nobody had raised any concern regarding it" at the time of bidding.
    CBSE board examsGen Zschool students
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