Coronavirus Lockdown: Postpone last date of submitting applications for entrance exams, HRD minister tells NTA

In the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, Human Resource Development minister (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Monday advised the director general of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to postpone the last date of acceptance of application forms for various entrance exams.

“To enable students to fill up their application forms during these testing times, I have advised @DG_NTA to postpone of ICAR Exam, JNU Entrance Exam, UGC NET, CSIR NET, NCHM JEE, IGNOU PhD and management entrance exams by 1 month,” Nishank tweeted.

To enable students to fill up their application forms during these testing times, I have advised @DG_NTA to postpone the last date of acceptance of applications of ICAR Exam, JNU Entrance Exam, UGC NET, CSIR NET, NCHM JEE, IGNOU PhD and Management Entrance Exams by 1 month.

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) March 30, 2020

The minister has also asked the NTA to postpone the application process of All India Ayush PG Entrance Test by one month. The new dates of all the examinations will be announced soon, he said.

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Over 1,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus in India. More than 28 lives have been lost so far.

To restrict the spread of coronavirus in Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 21-day lockdown that began on March 25.

Pokhriyal had last week said that he had directed NTA to postpone NEET (UG) 2020 and JEE (Main) till last week of May. The minister said he did so to avoid any inconvenience to parents and students who have to travel to different examination centres.