The Ministry of Education [erstwhile Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)], Government of India (GOI) has established National Testing Agency (NTA) as an independent autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organization under Society Registration Act 1860 for conducting efficient, transparent and international standards tests in order to assess the competency of candidates for admissions to premier higher education institutions.
The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India has entrusted the responsibility of conducting Joint Entrance Examination JEE (Main) to the NTA from 2019 onwards.

The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) has been set up by the Ministry of Education [erstwhile Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)] to manage and regulate the joint seat allocation to 114 institutes for the academic year 2021-22. This includes 23 IITs, 31 NITs, IIEST Shibpur, 26 IIITs, and 33 Other technical institutes funded fully or partially by central or state governments (other Government Funded Technical Institutes or other-GFTIS). Admission to all the academic programs offered by these Institutes will be made through a single platform.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India took a policy decision in 2002 to conduct an All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) annually, doing away with many of the large number of entrance examinations that were being conducted till then by various institutes in the country for admission to undergraduate degree programmes in the disciplines of Engineering/Technology and Architecture/Planning. This initiative has been widely accepted and appreciated.
A Central Counselling Board (CCB) constituted by the Govt. of India coordinated admissions to UG degree programmes in engineering, technology and architecture in respect of selected institutes till 2012. From 2013 onwards, CCB and AIEEE have been renamed as Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) and JEE (Main) respectively.

Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) is for admission to Undergraduate courses of Engineering and Architecture programs in premium institutions like NIT’s, IIIT’s, SPA’s, and CFTI’s (Centrally Funded & Premier Technical Institutes). The admission is based on the valid JEE (Main) rank and the Applicant should have completed successfully Mathematics, Physics and one of the subjects from (Chemistry, Biotechnology, Computer Science, Biology) in 11th AND / OR 12th, as applicable in the respective boards. This Scheme is an initiative by the Ministry of Education [erstwhile Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)], Government of India for the candidates like Foreign Nationals / Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) / Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) / Overseas Citizen of India (OCI).