A Note on

Empanelment of NTA-‘National Test Center’ (NTC)

National Testing Agency (NTA) invites application from Institutes & Agencies across the
country, for empanelment of NTA-National Test Centers, to serve as (a) Practice Centre
for students to perform various Mock Tests of NTA and (b) for conduct of various
Exams/Tests undertaken by NTA.

Disclaimer: Inviting applications for empanelment of NTA Test-Centers, is not an offer

by the NTA, but an invitation to register on NTA Website. No contractual obligation
whatsoever shall arise from this process until and unless a formal Agreement is signed
and executed by a duly authorized officer of the National Testing Agency and Head of
the Institute.

A) Background

1. The National Testing Agency (NTA) (www.nta.ac.in) has been established by

MHRD, as a premier, specialist, autonomous and self-sustained Testing
organization to conduct entrance examination for admission/fellowship in higher
educational institutions, through online Computer Based Tests (CBT) and offline
exams.

2. With a view to familiarize students/aspirants with Computer Based Tests (CBT),

NTA has, as on date, established more than 4300 Test Practice Centers (TPC) for
conduct of Mock Tests. The TPCs were inaugurated by the Hon’ble HRM and are
functional since 8th September 2018. Mock Tests are also available to anyone,
online at http://14.139.116.16:90/Quiz, which is very popular amongst students and
till date 2.44 Crore Hits have taken place.

3. NTA over past few months has conducted a number of Exams/Tests such as, JEE
(Main), UGC-NET, CMAT, GPAT, NEET (UG), SWAYAM, ARPIT, JNU, ICAR,
NCHM, DU, IGNOU etc. Since 1st December 2018 till 31st July 2019, NTA has
conducted more than 17 examinations, wherein more than 65 Lakh candidates
were enrolled for such Test/Exam. Therefore there is a need for institutions, on
behalf of NTA, to make available their infrastructure (including desk top PCs etc) for
conduct of these Examinations/Tests.
B) Aims and Objectives:

The objective of this Expression of Interest is to appoint /empanel for the following
activities:

a. The Institute shall make available their infrastructure, to a list of student,

whose names may be forwarded by the NTA, for practice of Mock Tests on
Saturdays and Sundays.

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 b. The Institute shall make available their infrastructure, human Resources etc.,
as and when NTA approaches them for conduct of National Test/Examination
of NTA.
c. The Institute selected can be offered to act as both, Practice Center and
Exam Center, or one of them.

C) Functional requirements and capabilities.

a) An Institute interested to empanel NTC, with NTA is expected to be situated in (a)

Metro Cities with population of above 50 Lakhs, having more than 250 PCs in
working order, (b) cities with population of 20-50 Lakhs, having more than 200 PCs
in working order, (c) cities with population of 5-20 Lakhs having more than 150 PCs
in working order and (d) cities with population less than 5 Lakhs having more than
100 PCs in working order, as per specification at Annexure-1.
b) The PCs should be connected via LAN with Server(s) (optional) that in turn are
connected with 4G internet connectivity, follow specification at Annexure-1. The
system should have 15 Minutes of UPS capacity that in turn should have DG power
Generation system to take appropriate load of equipment, lighting, fans etc.
c) The institute may have a big hall or a number of rooms, with above facilities, at single
location; however, at least one or more rooms should be in the ground floor.
d) Should have boundary wall height (6 feet & more) throughout the campus, with more
than one main gate.
e) Should have Wash Room facilities, separate for Men & Women, in each floor, at
approachable distance for Exams Rooms.
f) Preference shall be given to Institute providing higher number of PC with sitting
capacity than the norms.
g) Preference shall be given to Institute depending upon distance from main railway
station or ‘0’ Km point in the City.
h) Preference shall be given to an Institute having performed similar duty in the past.
i) Preference shall be given to an Institute having where Exam rooms are well
ventilated, fans in place & working and is a comfortable place to take three hour
exam.
j) Preference shall be given to an Institute having comfortable Table & Chair to take
the examination.
k) Preference shall be given to an Institute having user-friendly PwD facility to reach
the Exam Hall.
l) Preference shall be given to Institute providing AC rooms.
m) Preference shall be given to an Institute having dedicated maintenance, technical
human-power Team, who are required to immediately attend to faults, difficulties in
equipment & services.
n) Preference shall be given to an Institute having firefighting & detection equipment in
place and the building is certified for use by the local fire regulating bodies.
o) Preference shall be given to an Institute having proportionate space for parking of
vehicles during Exam time.

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 p) Preference shall be given to an Institute having connecting road of more than 15
feet in width connected to the gates.
q) Preference shall be given to an Institute having been recognized by the UGC,
AICTE, CBSE, Central Govt agency, State Govt.
r) Preference shall be given to an Institute having had similar experience in the past.
s) The Institute and the Agency applying should not be associated in the business of
Coaching.
t) Preference shall be given to an Institute, registered with the Govt / Trust / Registered
Company and functional at the site for more than two years.

D) Procedure for making infrastructure available for Practice:

a) The NTA in the past has been registering students regularly, those who are
interesting in taking practice, of NTA Exam Mock Tests, at institutes close by to
student’s place of stay. The registered student are expected to submit couple of
choices of institutes, depending upon distance from their place of stay. The names
of students, bunched together for a Shift, are forwarded by the NTA to a Centers for
student Mock Test. The Mock test Practice has in the past been conducted in one
shift on Saturday and two shifts on Sunday. The Center is expected to make
available a PC with LAN, to each of the student, for a period of three hours a shift.
b) Some of the Institutions in the past are registered as Test Practice Centers (TPC)
with the NTA, to offer students practice Mock Test, whose names were regularly
forwarded to them by NTA. However, such Institutions interested to register for B (a,
b, c) above, are required to afresh register as per the present process.
c) The NTA shall seek consent of the Center, to act as Examination Center, for a
particular Exam and on particular day(s). The Exam may conclude in one to 10 shifts,
consecutively, wherein 1/2/3 shifts may be held in a day and a shift could be of 2/3
Hours, with break of 1 or 2 hour in-between shifts. The city, where the Center is
situated, shall appear as an exam Center, in the Information Bulletin of NTA
examination and shall also be listed in the online Registration Form for candidates
to offer their choice. After students have selected a City; depending upon number of
students required to take Test in that City, Center(s) in that city shall be selected by
the NTA in order of preference, of number of PCs and remoteness of the Center,
etc. Accordingly candidates shall be allotted by the NTA to the Center, to take a test,
with intimation to ‘National Test Center’.
d) The ‘National Test Center’ is expected to look after all aspects of NTA examination;
provide PCs (as per specifications Annex-I) that is connected with LAN with two
Servers (optional) in working condition; download an Application, provided by the
NTA (or NTA designated Agency), on to the Center Server(s) for conduct of a Test;
ensure internet is in working condition & connected to the Server; the Question
Paper is required to be downloaded from NTA designated Server to local Servers of
the ‘National Test Center’, that shall be activated by NTA, at the time of Test; the
‘National Test Center shall provide PwD candidates a friendly moment facility; the
‘National Test Center’ shall provide human resource, both Male & Female, to frisk
candidates, guide the candidates to respective rooms & seat; the ‘National Test
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 Center’ shall have security personal in place; the ‘National Test Center’ shall provide
Invigilators in the ratio of 30:1 (for 30 candidates one invigilator), who are the staff
of the Institute/Agency; provide paper for rough work & pencil to the candidates as
per their requirement; provide RO drinking water to the candidates during
examination; ‘National Test Center’ shall ensure un-interrupted power supply for
lighting, fans & equipment during the Test; ‘National Test Center’ shall acquire CCTV
setup (Optional) as per the specification & configuration provided by the NTA, the
NTA in turn shall pay remuneration per candidate for use of CCTV (Refer Annex-II)
during the examination; shall comply with all instructions communicated by the NTA,
in writing, through mail or phone; shall download Examination Software from NTA
designated agency, into the PCs, servers (optional) at the Center, allotted for NTA
examination; shall forward all documents related to the examination back to the NTA,
on actual courier reimbursement basis. The NTA may depute Observers, NTA
officials to the Center before or during the Test. The NTA may further depute a
Technical Agency to verify Center Credentials, for which the Center shall cooperate
to allow it to access the facilities.

E) Procedure to Empanel for the Services

The interesting Institute/Agency is required to visit www.ntantc.in log in and upload all
the required data and fields and submit the application Online.

F) Selection Criteria:

Institutes/Agencies having Registered for Empanelment of NTA-‘National Test

Center’ (NTC), and meeting the criteria laid down by NTA, shall be short listed and
additional information, if required, shall be sought from such institutions. Selected
Institutes/agency shall be informed regarding selection as NTA’s ‘National Test-
Center’. The National Test Center shall sign an agreement with the NTA and upload
the same on NTC Website.

G) Remuneration Criteria:

The NTA shall have homogeneous rate card and shall communicate to all institutions
on the remunerations to be paid to such institution, job wise. The institution shall be
required to provide facilities & services, as per D) d) above and is further required to
sign an Agreement to act as Examination Center and Mock test Center, as and when
communicates by the NTA.

Extra efforts shall be made by NTA to establish Centers with District population less
than 1.5 Lakhs and at Aspirational Districts.

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 S. District Population* PCs For Practice Exams + Inv Exams + Inv in 2 Exams + Inv 3 shifts
No in Lakhs Reqd Rs./ Shift/ one shift a day shifts a day Rs./ per a day Rs./ per shift/
above candidate Rs./ Candidate shift/ Candidate Candidate

1 50 & Above 250 50 125 104 87

2 20-50 200 50 125 104 87
3 5-20 150 50 125 104 87
4 <5 100 50 125 104 87

INV = Invigilators

Note: * An Institute situated in a District with a population in Lakhs, (to be taken from
Annexure-III), proposing to set up a NTC, should offer Number of PCs and more, as
indicated in Column 2 above.

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 Annexure-I

A) Server requirement (OPTIONAL)

Three servers are required for 250 nodes and above, while two servers are required for
200 nodes and below, they are: 1 Primary, 1 Backup and 1 Backup (for Primary &
Backup Server) Server, with Hardware & Software requirements as per (i) & (ii) under.
(i) Hardware Requirement
1) Processor: Intel i5 and above with minimum clock speed of 2.2 Ghz.
2) RAM: 4GB and above.
3) HDD space: Minimum 50GB free space.
4) Screen resolution: 1024 X 768.
(ii) Software Requirement
1) Operating system: - Freshly formatted Windows 7, 64-bit OS (Windows 8 OR
windows 10 is not supported OS)
2) Browser - Internet Explorer (IE) 9.0 or above and Mozilla Firefox as a Backup
Browser.
3) Adobe Reader.
4) Microsoft office/open office
5) Other Required software - JAVA-JRE7.
6) Proxy should be disabled.
7) System's Port 80 and Port 443 Should be open.
8) No Antivirus should be installed /Or It should be Disabled
9) Full admin Rights required for the User.
10) No other software should be installed in OS. Like VM Ware, Skype etc.
11) Open Internet is required with minimum 512kbps/1mbps speed.
12) An Application Software (to be communicated by NTA) is required to be
downloaded on Servers before the Exam/Test.
URL's should be whitelisted on provided internet.
Please find the required minimum configuration for the setup (essential).
B) Client PC Minimum Hardware Requirement
Processor:- Intel Dual Core and above
RAM:- 2GB and above
HDD Space:- 200GB
Motherboard: Motherboard should have PXE enabled LAN card. (For Netboot OS)
Monitor – 16 inches and above
Monitor Should support screen resolution of 1024 X 768.
Keyboard should not be multimedia.

C) Network Requirement
Network Switch- GBPS
LAN Cable- CAT6
Distribution Layer switch should be manageable and loop prevention enabled.

D) Network Architecture
Modular Network.
Physically Separate network for assessment.

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 Annexure-II

CCTV (OPTIONAL)

For CCTV: All National Test Centers, approved to act as ‘Exam Centers’ shall be required
to install on their own a standard CCTV package, as per NTA Technical Specifications. On
allocation of Exam duties, the Centre shall be paid Rs.10/- per candidate/shift. The NTA
shall further set up a CCTV receiving network, Monitoring & Recording Setup.