India's NEET UG has emerged as the world's fifth-largest examination by applicant volume, with around 25 lakh candidates, according to an SBI Research report.

The report, titled "The State of Higher Education in India since 2014", compared major examinations across countries. NEET UG was the only Indian exam among the world's 10 largest.

China's Gaokao topped the list with about 12.9 million candidates. It was followed by Brazil's ENEM with 4.8 million, China's civil service exam with 3.7 million and its national master's entrance exam with 3.4 million.

Among Indian exams, NEET UG's 25 lakh applicants compare with about 12 lakh for the UPSC Civil Services exam, 10 lakh for JEE-Main and 8 lakh for UGC-NET, the report said.

Drawing lessons from the Gaokao's security and evaluation systems, SBI Research suggested reforms for the National Testing Agency. These include a statutory framework through an NTA Act of Parliament, an expert board, a permanent professional workforce and a candidate charter.

The report noted that of 194 disclosed NTA personnel, 171 were contractual or outsourced staff, about 88 per cent of the workforce.