Why hasn't the National Testing Agency been able to settle on a date for the UGC NET 2021?

Consider this: the exam dates have been rescheduled twice now, within the month of October alone. The exam will now be between October 17 and 25, instead of the previously assigned dates between October 17 and 19. The NTA says that it has taken the decision to postpone the exam in order to account for the requests it received from aspirants for rescheduling because it clashed with other exams.

Originally, the exam was set to be held on October 6 and 7 but was postponed because it was purportedly clashing with some other exams in that time frame. The UGC NET is usually conducted in two cycles in the months of June and December. However, given the postponement of the June cycle due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lethal second wave in India this year, the two cycles have been combined to be held this month.

The application process came to an end on September 12, but there has been no news about issuing admit card as of yet. Going by tradition so far, the admit cards are released about 20 days prior to the exam. Candidates can download the admit cards from ugcnet.nta.nic.in by entering their application number, date of birth and their unique security pin.