UPSC civil services: Baswan Committee report on exam pattern under consideration

The Baswan committee has examined the plan of examination, number of papers, their structure and duration, marking scheme, weightage of marks and system of evaluation among others.

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Aspirants come out after appearing for UPSC Civil Services Examination at one of the centres in Sector 16 of Chandigarh. Archive photo

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is examining the report of Baswan Committee that has suggested changes in the civil services examination to select country’s top bureaucrats. The Commission had in August 2015 constituted the expert committee under the chairmanship of former human resource development secretary and retired IAS officer B.S. Baswan to review the scheme of civil services examination in August last year.

“The report of the Baswan Committee is currently under the consideration of the UPSC and the recommendations of the UPSC on the report are yet to be received,” minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh said on March 10 in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

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The Baswan committee has examined the plan of examination, number of papers, their structure and duration, marking scheme, weightage of marks and system of evaluation among others.

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Civil Services is one of the most competitive examinations where lakhs of candidates appear. The exam is held in three stages — preliminary, main and interview — to select officers for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

READ | UPSC Civil Services exam: No proposal to give more weightage to General Studies, says minister

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In the recent five years, there have many major and minor changes in civil services main examination pattern. However, no change in the number of attempts, age limit or exam pattern has been done in the preliminary exam.

The syllabus for Mains was made much more specific and defined in 2013. UPSC added another paper in general studies (‘general mental ability’) shifting it from the paper 1 with introduction of entirely new subjects like ethics, integrity aptitude. Redefining the optional paper from two to one in the mains section was another major transformation done by the UPSC.

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Read | UPSC Civil Services 2017: Official notification out, prelims on June 18

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