The Union Public Service Examination, or UPSC is an annual exam for the civil services. These civil services include the indian administrative services, indian police services, indian foreign services and the indian revenue services. Each of these services have several departments under them which look into different matters. For example, the foreign services are divided according to countries where they are operating.
Auxiliary departments like the Forest Services also exist independent of these four.
The revenue, police and administrators are assigned their duties as per their posting. The duties revolve around collecting funds from the people and executing government policies at the ground level. Revenue services collect the revenue, the police enforces these policies to ensure they’re being done as per the law, and the administrators make the plans that command these groups.
All four organizations are heavily criticized for being understaffed, and not having enough accountability. Many officers are prone to corruption due to an excess of greed present innately in all humans. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
The excess power given to these services becomes a necessity because these powers ensure a smooth functioning; i.e. maximizing results with the minimum number of people. Still, officers are unable to meet their demands despite being overworked, due to an understaffing.
The biggest hurdles towards expanding the UPSC are two-fold: caste-based reservation and the Old Pension Scheme. The caste-based reservation discourages merit and promotes identitarianism amongst officers. Meanwhile, money from the Old Pension Scheme goes into the bank accounts of existing officers after they retire, instead of the pockets of future, and well staffed, UPSC officers.
While there has been much ado about the New Pension Scheme to mitigate the latter problem, the former subject remains largely taboo. Even the introduction of the Economically Weaker Section, or EWS, is frowned upon as it reserves seats for those economically poor, without a bother as to which caste is getting entry. Removing reservation entirely is a topic that can even draw the ire of the law, as journalists like Tavleen Singh have found out the hard way.
Students of the “General Category”, which includes Brahmins, Vaishyas and some Kshatriya communities, get only 6 total attempts until the age of 32. “Other Backward Castes,”, or OBC get 9 attempts until the age of 35. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes get unlimited attempts until the age of 37. This is mostly agnostic of financial background.
Further, many Public Sector Units, or PSU’s, which do not generate profits, eat into the cash reserves of the government, paid for by the taxpayer.
Regardless, clearing the UPSC, and securing the most premiere permanent executive post, complete with a monopoly over your domain and job security for life, is still seen as a matter of prestige in our country. It is rightfully celebrated every year, as candidates study various subjects like history, polity, geography, environment, science and technology, arts and culture, general knowledge and aptitude.
This year, around 13 Lakh students gave the UPSC exam.Around 180 candidates on average are selected. This gives most students very narrow margins to pass with, despite a surplus of talent and a demand for governance in the country. It is a tremendous achievement, although it cannot guarantee if someone is a good person or a bad person once in the service.
This week, there have been several stories of the 2024 UPSC craze. Here are the best ones:
Stories of this Week
AI Bot solves the IAS Paper in 7 Minutes; scores higher than all toppers
from firstpost
PadhAI (padhai = to study) is an Artificial Intelligence Large Language Model system which was used to solve the UPSC papers of previous years. The bot was able to solve the papers in 7 minutes, and was able to score higher than all the toppers of last year. It scored 170 marks out of 200 marks; while the average topper scores around 100 marks only.
This shows us that technology is fast outpacing man. To sensitize a good administrator to Bharat’s culture and their posting, such an AI tool can be used for training. Aptitude alone matters for the services, and this type of AI shows the UPSC examination’s fading relevance.
Mother loses consciousness, Father is distraught; aspirant daughter consoles both her parents: examination
from moneycontrol
Recently, a video of a girl in Gurugram went viral. In the video, due to her late arrival, the girl was not allowed to enter the exam hall. The temperature in Gurugram that day was 45°C, and the Loo Winds are blowing.
On hearing the news about their daughter not being allowed to enter, the mother fainted, while screaming “jaane do, ab tak shuru nahi hua hoga” (“let her go, the exam must not have started so soon”), and the father saying “saari mehenat barbaad ho gayi” (“all her efforts have gone to waste”). The daughter is consoling her parents while saying “yeh bas ek exam hai. agle saal de denge” (“It is only an exam. we can attempt it next year”).
The daughter is the rational one here, and is handling this loss very maturely. However, this shows a gap between the generations as well.
Differently abled students in Madurai forced to crawl to their UPSC exam
from the Hindu
The UPSC exam’s stringent rules on cheating have always caught the ire of the public. The exam, mostly conducted on a pen and paper with an OMR sheet, has strict cheating rules, repeatedly in the news. This year, we see a brand new dimension of this.
Earlier, the debate has mostly revolved around clothes; how abaya and burqa are allowed but janeu is forbidden, how digital watches that are not smart watches are allowed into the examination hall, etc. This is usually done under a false notion of equality; instead of seeing each clothing item for what it is (abaya is easier to hide cheat sheets in; janeu it is hard to write and read answers from; analog watches and digital watches are not smart watches, etc)
However, this exam saw Dravidian Politics at its peak. Several differently abled students had their wheelchairs, crutches, polio calipers, sitting pillows and other instruments to aid them, were confiscated. Strict rules banning outsiders from entering the exam hall prevented guardians from entering the exam hall.
The disabled aspirants had to request their fellow aspirants to carry them to their exam. Those who could not find anyone, were forced to crawl. Their willpower to give this exam must have carried them over to their exam hall, despite the horrendous humiliation suffered.
This sort of blindly meting out of pseudo-justice is not very desirable in the Mother of Democracies™. Governments should take strict action against those invigilating and compensate the aspirants with a formal apology from those involved.
Aspirants disappointed by easiness of exam; approach courts for lower cutoffs
Aspirants who spent the entire last year, or maybe more, preparing for their examination found the paper this year too simple. Questions such as “Who is the author of ‘The India Way’ and ‘Why Bharat Matters’ ?” were asked, with options including Shashi Tharoor and Dr. Subramanian Jaishankar.
Aspirants hoping to secure their future have subsequently demanded a lower cutoff, in light of such questions.
“Corruption is the grease of the Economy”. Saloni Khanna, UPSC interviewer and DU Economist
From: Keshav Bedi
Source: Raj Shamami on YouTube – https://youtu.be/cvddvAqZLMg
In an interview with Raj Shamami, the Economics Professor at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College (SBSEC) and UPSC interviewer and “YouTube sensation”, Saloni Khanna, parroted the long debunked myth that “corruption is the grease of the economy”. Instagrammer and influencer Keshav Bedi cites several research papers to show that this myth, emerging and debunked in the 1960s itself, has been debunked almost 50 years ago. If UPSC interviewers and coaches are parroting 50 year old theories, it raises questions about whether the education system in colleges is teaching us relevant information or not.
Saloni Khanna also raises a questionable point on unemployment. You can watch the full clips here:
Conclusion
The UPSC exam is a premiere exam in the country, where many students driven by various ideologies pursue this examination. It has seen a law of diminishing returns. To prevent private players with only profit as interest, enter this administration field, we need strong and structural reforms within the UPSC. Without these, our country’s growth, no matter how rapid, will always remain sluggish.
