(Article) UPSC chairman in favour of online Civil services examinations

UPSC chairman in favour of online Civil services examinations

Deepak Gupta, Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), who was in Shimla to attend the 17th National Conference of Chairpersons of State Public Service Commissions (SPSC), said plans to introduce online civil services examinations might still remain a distant dream with the need being felt for some major structural changes in the pattern and number of papers.

He expressed his firm conviction and opinion at the Conference that there was no escape from coming the aspirations and expectations of new generation and Opt for online examination in future.

UPSC Chairman informed the Chairpersons “with the technological advancements, in the field of Hardware, Networking, internet speed etc., the possibility of conducting CBRT in normal examinations would also be explored”.

“There is a huge increase in applications, which is becoming a logistical challenge. Last year, the civil services preliminary applicants numbered 9.5 lakh, which is expected to rise to 12 lakh this year.” said Gupta.

Gupta termed the system of online examinations and web-based examinations as efficient, credible and helpful in handling increased workload.

The computer-based examination system is more secure and transparent as a mode of conducting examinations/recruitment tests as it compresses the time between conduct of examinations and declaration of results, he said, while adding that some challenges such as security of data and related infrastructure constraints need to be addressed.

Gupta shared his experience of successfully conducting 22 online computer-based tests in nine cities.

“We conducted the structured examination for Combined Medical Services-2014 for 30,204 candidates at 151 venues in 41 cities across the country in one go,” he said.

Apart from the examinations, a large number of aspirants also apply to the commission to seek jobs against the advertised post.

The UPSC chairman said that in the last three years the commission had introduced innovative Information Communication Technological initiatives such as online receipt of examination applications, generation of e-admit cards and interactive websites to cut down delays and reduce manual workload.

Gupta admitted that the tasks being handled by state commissions had become challenging when it came to maintaining transparency and accountability, besides the integrity of the selection process and the objectivity that will remain to be the test to measure the commission’s performance.

“Views were also solicited about services problems faced by many PSCs vis-à-vis equivalence of marks awarded by various lesser known universities and institutes which give unreasonable high perentages/ grades to candidates,” he added.

The Chairpersons felt that problem could be tackled with the help of state and Centre government so that reputed universities system of awarding grades or percentage do not become casualty.

The 17th National Conference of State PSCs decided to give an opportunity to newly created State of Talengana to organize next Conference in Hyderabad in January or February, 2016.

(Inputs from reputed national newspapers)

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