India temporarily bans Telegram over exam paper leak concerns

India has temporarily blocked the Telegram app over concerns it may be used for cheating, days before a crucial medical entrance exam is set to be reheld.

Millions of students will retake the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) on 21 June after the exam held in May was cancelled over allegations of a paper leak.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam, welcomed the move, saying that it was taken in response to the "organised use of the platform [Telegram] by cheating rackets to defraud candidates".

But internet users and rights activists have criticised the move, calling it a "band-aid solution" to tackle a much larger problem of exam fraud.

Telegram has not issued a statement yet. The BBC has reached out to the platform for a response.

The platform was still available to users in India hours after the government's announcement, and it is not clear yet how the curb will be enforced.

But it has brought the NEET-UG exam - the gateway to joining medical colleges in India - and the recent controversy surrounding it back into the headlines.

Nearly 2.28 million candidates wrote the exam on 3 May at more than 5,000 centres across India. But within days, the NTA scrapped the exam after allegations of a paper leak led to widespread protests.