India, Sept. 4 -- The ministry of social justice and empowerment has revised its guidelines to allow all persons with disabilities (PwDs), removing the 40% "benchmark disability" requirement, to avail themselves of scribes and other assistance during competitive exams, while directing exam authorities to create vetted pools of trained and certified scribes during this period.

Following a series of Supreme Court directives, the ministry, through the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities (DEPwD), issued the revised policy last month, which will take immediate effect and apply to all competitive exams linked to employment and admissions to professional and technical courses.

The most recent directive by the Supreme Court c...