New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- The NEET protests brought examination paper leaks into the country's public consciousness. India has more than 600 million people in the 18-35 age group, against the roughly 2 million who sat for NEET in 2026. At first glance, it seems unusual that a medical-entrance exam taken by so few students could galvanize such broad-based support across every section of the country's youth.

But scratch the surface, and NEET turns out to be one exam among many. A dataset compiled on Kaggle.com documents 110 confirmed and alleged paper-leak incidents across India from 2004 to 2026 - spanning 24 states and Union territories and accelerating sharply in recent years: the period since 2020 alone averages three times as many incide...