The latest NEET leak is a warning. To reap the demographic dividend, the state must ensure the credibility of institutions that shape young lives. 3 min read May 13, 2026 06:00 AM IST First published on: May 13, 2026 at 06:00 AM IST On May 3, more than 22 lakh students sat for one of the most consequential examinations in the country — the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the gateway to roughly 1.3 lakh MBBS seats in India’s medical colleges. For them, the brutally competitive test was the culmination of painstaking preparation as well as financial and emotional investment. Less than 10 days later, they suffered a devastating disappointment after the examination was cancelled because investigators reportedly found extensive overlap between the actual paper and a pre-circulated “guess paper”. Multiple suspects have reportedly been detained, and the Centre has handed the case to the CBI. But reducing this episode to a mere law-and-order breach understates the scale of institutional failure.…