India's solution to entrance exam fraud: A temporary ban on Telegram

National Students Union of India (NSUI) workers hold placards featuring India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan during a protest against the National Testing Agency (NTA) over alleged exam paper leaks and the subsequent rescheduling of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in Hyderabad, Telangana, on June 13, 2026. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Indian authorities have restricted access to the messaging app Telegram in an effort to prevent exam fraud, after the cancellation of a crucial test last month sparked protests across the country. Telegram will be unavailable until June 22, while its message editing feature will also be disabled until June 30, India's National Testing Agency said in a statement shared on X on Tuesday. The move is in response to the "organized use of the [Telegram] platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates," who will be taking a national entrance test on June 21, the NTA said. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (undergraduate) or NEET-UG is a crucial exam for admission to medical colleges and was cancelled in May due to allegations of a paper leak, affecting millions of students. Telegram is owned by Russian-born tech billionaire Pavel Durov, and it claims to have more than 1 billion monthly active users globally. CNBC has reached out to Telegram for comment. …