New Delhi (India), March 26, 2023: The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law, and Justice has recently recommended that the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) should reduce the selection cycle of the civil service examination.
The committee stated that the current recruitment process, which takes nearly 15 months from the date of notification to the date of declaration of the final result, wastes candidates’ prime years and also takes a heavy toll on their physical and mental health. The committee further noted that the duration of any recruitment examination should not ordinarily exceed six months to avoid such consequences.
Additionally, the panel expressed concerns about the low turnout of candidates appearing for the examination, with only 51.95% of the total number of candidates who had applied for the examinations conducted by UPSC in 2022–2023 actually appearing for the same.
The committee has requested that UPSC examine the reasons for the low turnout and share the findings with the committee. The panel also recommended forming an expert committee to assess if the present scheme of recruitment provides an equal opportunity to both English-medium-educated urban candidates and non-English-medium-educated rural candidates.
Moreover, the committee suggested that the UPSC should publish the answer key after the preliminary stage of the examination and allow candidates to raise objections to improve transparency and fairness in the examination system.
The committee stressed that the UPSC should take steps to reduce the duration of the recruitment cycle without compromising the quality of the selection process.
In summary, the committee has recommended several measures to improve the civil service examination process, such as reducing the selection cycle’s duration, examining the reasons for the low turnout of candidates, assessing the impact of changes made in the scheme, pattern, and syllabus of the civil service examination, and improving transparency and fairness in the examination system.
The committee also called for the UPSC to take feedback from candidates to effect necessary improvements and ensure more transparency, fairness, and candidate friendliness.
