Tender Manipulation

📋 The CBSE OSM Tender — Three Rounds, One Winner

Sarthak Sidhant, a 17-year-old student, published a meticulous analysis of CBSE's tender documents on his GitHub blog, exposing how the rules were rewritten across three rounds. His findings were picked up by India Today and Hindustan Times, which both reported extensively on the tender irregularities.

Round 1 — Tender floated
No compliant bids (or insufficient competition)

↓

Round 2 — Re-tendered
Again failed to produce a suitable winner

↓

Round 3 — Key conditions relaxed
Minimum turnover/experience lowered · Technical criteria softened

↓

Coempt EduTeck wins
Lowest compliant bidder in relaxed third round

Sources: Sarthak Sidhant's blog · India Today · Hindustan Times

🔄 The Identical SSC Playbook

The CBSE-Coempt scandal is not unique. An almost identical pattern played out at the Staff Selection Commission with vendor Eduquity Career Technologies.

Parameter	CBSE → Coempt	SSC → Eduquity
Vendor	Coempt EduTeck (Hyderabad)	Eduquity Career Tech (Bangalore)
Displaced	TCS (lost bidding)	TCS (won initial tender, then lost)
Founded	2000 (as Globarena)	2000
Tender pattern	2 failed rounds → relaxed → Coempt wins	TCS wins → tender cancelled → re-tendered → Eduquity wins
Previous blacklist	Telangana Globarena fiasco (23+ suicides, 2019)	DGT declared "Ineligible" in 2020
State-level failures	TSBIE 2017-19 result bungling	MP TET leak, MP Patwari manipulation, MBA-MH (150+ HC petitions), 4-state blacklist
Central disaster	CBSE OSM 2026: scan/blur/swap	SSC Phase XIII 2025: 55,000+ affected, server crashes
Revenue spike	~₹68 Cr (FY2025)	₹7 Cr → ₹117-135 Cr in 2 years
Political defense	BJP: "Works in opposition states too!"	BJP: Same defense
Vendor lock-in	"Removing vendor would delay results"	"Removing vendor would delay exams until December"

TCS wins SSC tender on technical merit

↓

Tender CANCELLED · Re-tendered with modified rules
TCS technical scores reportedly reduced · Eduquity's increased

↓

Eduquity wins at ₹171/candidate vs TCS ₹311
Lowest bid — but only after rules changed

Sources: Bhaskar English, Shiksha.com, DGT Comparative Statement

🏛️ The Cross-Party Pattern

What makes this systemic — not partisan — is that the Chary family has operated across both BRS (Telangana) and BJP (Central) governments:

Telangana / BRS Era (2017–2019)

Globarena (now Coempt) awarded ₹4.3 crore, 3-year TSBIE contract under KCR's TRS government
Norms violated — Globarena didn't meet minimum criteria (5 government universities, state board experience)
Contract bypassed Centre for Good Governance
2019: System produced catastrophically wrong results → 23+ student suicides
Telangana government eventually pulled the contract

Central / BJP Era (2022–2026)

VSN Raju's family joins Coempt board (same day as Prof. S. Sadagopan)
CBSE OSM tender won via relaxed third-round bidding
BJP leaders Amit Malviya and Gaurav Bhatia defend Coempt: "it works in opposition-ruled states too"
2026: CBSE OSM results disaster — scan errors, blurred marks, mass re-evaluation

The same family. The same company (rebranded). The same exam-tech business. Different political patrons.

Sources: The Hindu, Economic Times, Deccan Chronicle

⚠️ NEET CBT — The Next Target?

On 29 May 2026 — just days after the CBSE OSM scandal broke — the NTA told the Supreme Court that NEET-UG will shift to Computer-Based Test mode from 2027.

The Looming Risk

NEET-UG is taken by ~25 lakh students annually
Moving to CBT creates the largest single exam-tech procurement in India's history
If the pattern holds: TCS will bid → tender may be cancelled → criteria relaxed → smaller firm wins
Coempt and/or Eduquity are potential contenders
A vendor with their track record handling NEET = catastrophic risk for 25 lakh medical aspirants

Sources: Careers360, Bodmas Education