Tag: change

UPSC: Pattern change over the years

Source: telanganatoday.com

Sriram, an aspirant for the Civil Services who successfully qualified for selection to the Indian Police Service (IPS) by securing the 150th rank in the merit list, was shocked when he did not find his number in the list of qualified aspirants at the prelims in the following year. After having prepared for the examination for three years he had cleared all the hurdles and secured a position in the IPS. He had appeared at the examination again to improve his rank and join the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). However, he could not clear even the first hurdle.

There are many other aspirants who share the same feelings. The Civil Services examination is conducted in three stages i.e. Preliminary, Main and Interview. The Preliminary examination, which is the first stage, is an objective type paper with multiple choice questions.

Aspirants often underestimate the importance of the Preliminary, and qualifying in it is taken for granted. However, the sheer magnitude of the competition where only 11,000 candidates qualify out of the five lakh who appear indicates the nature of the Preliminary. Also with negative marking in place the difference between success and failure could be a mere 0.33 per cent.

The Preliminary was introduced to `keep non-serious aspirants out and reduce the number of aspirants to a manageable number’ on the recommendations of the Kothari Committee in 1979. When it was introduced, it comprised an optional paper for 300 marks and a General Studies paper for 150 marks. The Satish Chandra Committee of 1989, appointed to review the examination, upheld the pattern but recommended negative marking to reduce the ‘chance element’ negative marking was introduced in 2007. The Alagh Committee of 2000, suggested a revised format for the Preliminary with an optional paper for 300 marks and a CSAT paper for 200 marks. The Second Administrative Reforms committee recommended common papers at the Preliminary. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) appointed the Khanna Committee in 2009, which recommended a revised format of the Preliminary with two papers i.e. CSAT and General Studies Paper. This was implemented from 2011. This pattern of equal weightage to aptitude and general studies gave an unfair advantage to urban students and there were wide spread protests all over India mainly from the Hindi speaking areas.

The government responded to the protests by making the Aptitude paper which had questions on quantitative aptitude and English comprehension as a qualifying paper. Aspirants who had suffered due to the CSAT model were compensated by increasing the age limit and the number of attempts by two years. Also, all aspirants of the year 2011 were given another attempt.

With all these changes, the Preliminary today has two papers i.e. the General Studies paper with 100 questions from various areas and the aptitude paper with 80 questions. While an aspirant has to score minimum qualifying mark of 67/200 in the aptitude paper, his/her success is determined by the marks scored in the General Studies paper.

It is this change that has resulted in a lack of `cause’ and `effect’ relationship. The UPSC has the unenviable task of reducing the number of aspirants out of the marks scored in the General Studies paper which has only 100 questions. Towards this aim it has been making the questions as unpredictable as possible. Such an uncertain exam is grossly unfair and dampens the spirit of the aspirant.

The Preliminary has become a jealous gatekeeper and many prospective aspirants are likely to move away from the examination. Such an exam in the long run is going to affect the quality of administration. Students have been protesting in Delhi for the last five years and demanding compensation in the form of at least an extra attempt. One of the demands has been to change the format of preliminary to reduce the uncertainty.

From 1979 to 2010, there were no protests as the exam had a cause and effect relationship. If you work hard and you were sure you would pass the examination – The uncertainty began with the changes and has reached a peak after 2015.

The UPSC has realised that it is time to make changes. It is reported that the vision document released by UPSC has recommended to the government that the CSAT paper should be deleted from the scheme of examination.

While it is not known whether an alternative paper has been recommended, it would be ideal if another paper on General Studies is introduced with diverse areas and predictability with reference to the number of questions from each area.

This paper could also have 100 questions and could replace CSAT. This will lead to the much needed uncertainty reduction and encourage qualified and meritorious youth to choose a career in the Civil Services, instead of opting for the private sector.

‘Bihar Suno Nahin Dekho’: How these women are trying to change perception about Bihar

Source: indiatvnews.com

The very mention of Bihar brings images of an under-developed society into the mind — when the state clearly has emerged as one of the fastest growing regions in India, clocking over 10 per cent annual growth for the past decade.

According to the Bihar Economic Survey, in 2016-17, the growth rate was 11.3 per cent, while the national average was 7 per cent.

Rapid growth in infrastructure, energy and communication sectors and public investment in roads played a major role in bringing the turnaround. Other important factor that contributed in the spurt of opportunities was the plethora of campaigners who worked tirelessly for changing the perception about Bihar.

Amongst the campaigners are two women — Yashi Malviya and Sukriti Yadav — who took it upon themselves to inform the world how beautiful Bihar can be.

The two women, both of them journalists, began a campaign through their website ‘Bihar Bytes’ and travelled to as many as 32 districts of Bihar. From their travel was born #biharsunonahidekho — capturing the essence of the state.

Under the hashtag, they ran video clips, photographs and stories about several unexplored places of Bihar — places that can be on the bucket lists of tourists — on the social media . 

“One fine day, we Googled Bihar and we were shocked to see that there were almost no good images of the state on the internet. Bihar was perceived in a negative light. And there on we took it upon us to work and improve the image of the state,” Yashi Malviya, co-founder at Bihat Bytes, said.

Speaking to India TV, Sukriti Yadav, co-founder at Bihar Bytes, said, “I have heard several people say there was no place to visit in Bihar. We visited a lot of places which were not promoted. Manjhar Kund, Tutla Bhawani waterfall, Rohtasgarh Fort, Panth Pakkar, Darbhanga Fort, Rajnagar Palace, and others were on our list. We collected relevant data about the places to spread the word through social media, our website and various travel and blogger meet-ups.”

Perhaps a start is made — to attract people from across the world and the Bihari diaspora to come to explore the state.  

The two campaigners now only hope that they bring a change in how Bihar is perceived in India and across the world.

“I have experienced a whole new world and a different side of Bihar which had been neglected. And I want everyone to visit those places. We have heard it enough that Bihar is a backward state. We believe that increase in tourism will give a boost to employment and economic growth of the state,” Sukriti signed off.