UPSC to hold prelims on Oct 4, mains in Jan

New Delhi: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), India’s principal government recruitment body, on Friday announced the dates for public service examinations

New Delhi: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), India’s principal government recruitment body, on Friday announced the dates for public service examinations that were deferred because of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

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The preliminary civil services exam is scheduled to be held on October 4 and the main exam will be held over five days starting on January 8, UPSC said in a notification. UPSC postponed the exam from its original date of May 31 keeping in mind the fact that many candidates would be unable to reach their examination centres because of the lockdown caused by Covid-19 as well as the inability of states to host such a large-scale exercise.

Nearly 1 million people register for the civil services preliminary examination every year and over 160,000 officials help conduct the exam across 2,500 centres for recruitment to the elite Indian Administrative Service and Indian Foreign Service and other services.

“The fresh date will help students reach their exam centres on time,” an official in UPSC said on condition of anonymity. “ Other exams have also been scheduled keeping all the health factors and needs of both students and those conducting the exam in mind.”

The Indian Forest Service preliminary exam will be held along with the UPSC preliminary. The National Defence Academy exam is scheduled for September 6 and the combined medical services examination is scheduled for October 22.

B.S. Baswan, who led a panel on UPSC reforms, said the dates give UPSC sufficient time to put infrastructure in place for holding such a massive exam amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“This will give the Commission time to get more invigilators and provide more space to ensure social distancing during the exam,” Baswan said. “They may also consider installing CCTV cameras. At the end of the day, conducting the exam will be a question of logistics.”

According to an official at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, who requested anonymity, training g typically starts at the end of August and lasts until the end of May. Then the officers head to their respective districts to work under the district collector. After that, they return to the institute for five weeks to submit their dissertations. The last week of training g is spent in London or South Korea, honing their skills. They also pass a variety of exams during the year-long period. It is only after this that they start as assistant secretaries or sub-divisional magistrates, said the official.

“If the main examinations are being held in January, then that implies that another seven to ten months have been added to the calendar,” said Padamvir Singh, former director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, the apex training institute for the civil services. “That implies the training will not change much as they will reach the academy by October. At most, the foundation course will have to be curtailed by a few months. But overall it is a little change in the cycle.”

Anil Swarup, a former government of India secretary and author of the book Not Just A Civil Servant, concurred with Singh.

“They have no other option,” said Swarup. “They have actually offered more time to prepare. Normally, between the prelims and the mains, you get three-and-a-half months. This time, it is four-and-a-half months.”

Swarup added that after the interview, the foundation course will start. “It normally begins in September, but this time it will be in October this year, it won’t deter the calendar by much.”

According to Palak Gupta from Chandigarh, who will write the civil services exam for the first time, the dates will give students enough time to prepare for the examinations.

“Everyone was expecting that the exam will be held in August, they have given more time,” said Gupta, 24. “Things would have opened up a bit by then. Moreover, there will be enough time to prepare for the main exam.”

Gupta said there was one catch.

“Students will now have to study current affairs a lot more,” she said. “An additional three months, as well as all that has followed the coronavirus crisis.”