The apex body to oversee maintenance of standards of higher education — University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked vice chancellors of all varsities across India to encourage and motivate students to take an online voluntary national-level exam on "gau vigyan" (cow science).

University Grants Commission (UGC) secretary Rajnish Jain in a letter to vice-chancellors said that "you are aware the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, government of India, established in February 2019, has been working on dissemination of information on economic, scientific, environmental, health, agriculture and spiritual relevance of indigenous cow in the country…I write this to request you, to give wide publicity to this initiative and encourage students to enrol or register themselves for this examination. This may also be brought to the notice of the colleges affiliated to your university".

As per a PTI report, the "Kamdhenu Gau Vigyan Prachar-Prasar Examination", for which there is no registration fee, will be held on February 25, and students from primary, secondary and senior-secondary schools as well as colleges can take the test being conducted by the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA). Moreover, even the general public can take the hour-long multiple choice question-based exam that will be held in 11 regional languages (Hindi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and Odia), and English.

RKA was constituted by the central government for conservation, preservation, protection and development of cows, it said. RKA in a notification published on January 5, said the exam aims to, "infuse curiosity into all Indians about cows and make them aware of the unexplored potential and business opportunities a cow can offer, even after it stops giving milk".