“The Baswan Committee’s report along with UPSC’s recommendations on it has been received on 20 March 2017, and the same is under examination.”

Promotion

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of former human resource development secretary and retired IAS officer B.S. Baswan to review the scheme of civil service examination in August 2015.

The others on this committee constituted of – R.K. Barik (Professor, IIPA), Akber Ali (research Officer, IIPA), and Pankaj Kumar Singh (Research Officer, IIPA).

The committee had submitted its report to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on 9 August 2016.

“The Baswan Committee’s report along with UPSC’s recommendations on it has been received on 20 March 2017, and the same is under examination,” the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said in response to an RTI query filed by a PTI correspondent.

While this has not been approved yet, some of the key changes that are likely to be brought in are:

1. The optional paper that the aspirants have to appear for may be completely done away with. This is being touted as a huge reform.

2. The committee is understood to have recommended a reduction in upper age limit of 32 years to appear in the civil service exam.

Promotion

3. The UPSC has fixed a seven-day time frame for candidates to report mistakes or discrepancies in questions asked in the various examinations conducted by it.

Most aspirants feel it would be a game-changer as there is a huge difference in the award of marks in the optionals, while some subjects have innate advantages.

“The availability of coaching and study material, and the scheme of awarding marks make some subjects more popular,” agrees Vikas, an aspirant in a report to The Hindu.

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