New Delhi, May 30 -- The Central Board of Secondary Education issued its on-screen marking contract to Hyderabad-based Coempt Edu Teck on December 5, 2025-just 74 days before the first Class 12 board examination was held on February 17 -with the firm having emerged as the winner in a quality-and-cost based tender process after submitting the lowest bid, officials said on Friday. The timeline, confirmed to HT, places the contract award at the centre of mounting questions about the pace of the rollout. As HT reported on Friday, CBSE failed to secure a qualified vendor in two earlier tender rounds before several technical conditions were tweaked in an August 2025 RFP. Under the Quality and Cost Based Selection framework- which assigned 70% wei...