‘New UPSC policy may favour Hindi students’

The UPSC exam is conducted to pick the top bureaucrats, including IAS, IPS and IFS officers. It is held in three stages — preliminary, main and interview. The preliminary is an elimination stage and the marks are not counted. The marks in the main exam and the interview are clubbed and the final rank list is prepared. 

Based on the ranking alone, the cadre and services are allotted. After allocation of services, candidates would be admitted to a foundation course — a training programme. Their performance in the foundation course would not influence the service or the cadre allocation.

However, now the Centre intends to change the process where the final ranking would be decided by clubbing the performance of students in the foundation course. If the circular is made a rule, the non-Hindi students would suffer as clearing Hindi is compulsory. If they get low marks, their ranks would be affected.

Shankar, founder and CEO, Shankar IAS Academy, Chennai, said through the circular, the government is trying to favour Hindi-speaking and influential candidates. So, even if a candidate secures the first rank in the UPSC exam, he or she may get lower ranks if they score less marks in the foundation course. Also, in the exam, the selection of candidates is based on merit but in the foundation course, there are chances that evaluators could be influenced by money and ethnicity. So, if the Hindi-speaking students and influential candidates, who scored low ranks in the UPSC exam, get good marks in the foundation course, they would get a better rank finally.

An IRS official said that earlier the foundation course was not mandatory and those who got low ranks would make another attempt to secure a good rank. But if implemented, attending the foundation course becomes mandatory and there will be no scope for improvement in the ranks.