UPSC exam reforms: Govt forms expert panel to review civil services test pattern

New Delhi: An expert committee has been formed by the government to examine various issues related to age relaxation, eligibility, syllabus and pattern of civil services examination to select IAS and IPS officers.

"The committee has been formed to look into all aspects of civil services examination," Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.

Based on the report of the committee, further changes in the civil services exam pattern will be contemplated with the primary objective of providing a level-playing field to aspirants from diverse streams of curriculum like mathematics, engineering, medicine or humanities, he said.

Till such time as the recommendations of the committee are received and the government subsequently takes a decision on the same, Singh said that the General Studies Paper-II (also known as CSAT) in the civil services preliminary examination will remain a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33 per cent.

Meanwhile, the government's decision taken last year to exclude the English portion consisting of 22 marks in the General Studies Paper-II of the civil services preliminary examination from tabulation also continues to remain in force, he told PTI here.

The panel has been formed as follow-up to the decision taken by the government in May this year to form such a committee, said Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, said.

The panel will be headed by former Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer BS Baswan and consist of leading academicians, technocrats and senior bureaucrats, officials said.

Singh recalled that soon after the Narendra Modi government took over on May 26, 2014, it was confronted with the demands from across the country for revisiting the pattern and syllabus of civil services examination.

It was also being alleged that the present syllabus and pattern tended to benefit students from mathematics and engineering backgrounds, he said.

Singh said the decision to revise the civil services exam pattern was a path-breaking one and aimed to achieve the basic objective of ensuring that the best and the most deserving with a genuine aptitude, should get the opportunity to become a part of the administrative set up of rapidly developing 21st century India.

The civil services examination is conducted annually in three stages-- preliminary, main and interview -- to select candidates for prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

There are two compulsory papers -- Paper I and Paper II -- of 200 marks each in civil services preliminary examination.