India, July 26 -- Nandan Nilekani's appointment on Sunday to head the Narendra Modi government's new exam-reform task force follows a pattern that goes back around two decades. Successive governments, of different parties, have brought the technocrat back for policy work. In that sense, it's only the latest turn in a career that has now spanned both the Congress and BJP.

Around eight years ago, the Supreme Court constituted a seven-member panel, chaired by retired judge GS Singhvi, that included Nilekani among others, to investigate irregularities in the Staff Selection Commission's CGL/CHSL 2017 exam.

The panel did submit a report, which the court cited in 2020 to conclude there wasn't enough evidence the entire exam process had been c...