'IAS tests should be over in 6 months' A Parliamentary panel has recommended that the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) should follow the General Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) pattern in conducting the civil services examination and finish the entire process in six months. "We find that the 18-month period for conducting the civil services examination is far too long. There is no justification for spending so much time and the entire process should be completed in six months," said EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel and Public Grievances. The House panel called the UPSC's procedure of conducting the civil services examination "a typical example of its time-consuming practices which lacked transparency". It may present an interim report during the Budget session to highlight the "classic red-tapism prevailing in the country's main institution responsible for national level recruitment for Government of India", Natchiappan said. Coming down heavily on the commission's reluctance to part with information, the panel said, "It, being a constitutional body, should uphold high standards of transparency and accountability. But strangely it is projecting itself as above the law and does not want to give information under the RTI Act." The details of all candidates should be displayed on the UPSC website, and marks of all the candidates appearing for the prelims should also be made public, the committee said. The House committee also criticised the UPSC's practice of interviewing general and reserved category candidates separately. "This should be stopped," Natchiappan said. Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com