Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the ground breaking ceremony for the new building of the Karnataka Examination Authority in Bengaluru on Monday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

With an aim to streamline the recruitment process, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) has implemented a One-Time-Registration system for the various recruitment examinations it conducts. 

Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar launched the portal on Monday, while Chief Minister Siddaramaiah laid the foundation for an annex building that will come up at a cost of ₹30 crore on the KEA premises in Malleswaram. 

Once candidates register on this new portal, they will not have to apply or submit their details and documents for every recruitment exam. They can just pay the examination fee using a specific registration number and participate in various recruitment exams. 

“The candidates will get a unique identification number while applying for a recruitment examination through KEA for the first time. If they want to apply for other exams later, they simply have to add this number and pay the fees,” Dr. Sudhakar explained.

The Karnataka Examinations Authority command control room’s web-casting system adopted to ensure transparency in examinations, at the KEA building, in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
File Photo

Augmentation of infrastructure

Apart from conducting more recruitment exams in the last few years, KEA has also been working on augmenting its infrastructure. The annex building the CM laid the foundation for on Monday, was also necessitated by this additional workload, the authority said. 

The KEA currently conducts entrance and counseling for professional courses as well as recruitment exams. In 2024, it handled a record 17 recruitment exams, processing 29.28 applications and completed the recruitment of 6,052 candidates. 

This has also increased the load on the server KEA presently uses, following which plans are under way to establish a dedicated server for KEA alone. Meanwhile, the government is also considering establishing separate divisions for admission to professional courses and recruitment exams in KEA. 

Preventing malpractices

Dr. Sudhakar said several measures were being taken to plug loopholes and prevent malpractices in exams conducted by KEA. “We have already introduced webcasting of the exams and iris-scanning of the candidates using Artificial Intelligence. Going a step further, we have decided to verify the details of the person who joined the post with the person who appeared for the test, to prevent impersonation,” he said. 

He further said that to enhance transparency in recruitment exams, there are plans to introduce computer-based testing (CBT). “Discussions with bodies like Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences are on. Initially, exams with fewer candidates will adopt this system. There are plans to expand it to all exams in the future,” he said.