Cheating in school exams has gone high-tech in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the country, write Hasan Suroor and Suchitra Behal Question papers in five subjects were shown on a private cable TV channel last week, a day before the annual school-leaving examinations. They were shown several times to ensure that all those who had paid for the “leak” saw them.

Some of the papers were also sold on the “open market” for between pound;8 and pound;24.

Among those who bought them, according to the police, were a number of institutes that specialise in preparing students for exams.

The leak was discovered a few hours before the examination when a packet of question papers was found to have been tampered with at an examination centre.

The papers were cancelled immediately.

Part 2 of Millennium Trends: new technology is next week