UPSC likely to be tougher, IAS, IPS officers may face another online test after clearing UPSC

Union Public Service Commission is one of the toughest exams to crack in India. However, the aspiring minds are coming through with flying colours by attaining good marks. Had it not been for their hard work, grit and determination, the bright candidates would not have become proud IAS, IPS or IRS officers today.

Meanwhile, the trainee officers of the IAS, IPS, IRS and other such services may have to take one more test quickly after they are recruited through the UPSC according to ThePrint.

IAS officers outside the Parliament (representational image) | Credits: narendramodi.in

As per the senior officials in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), before the training of officers starts with the Common Foundation Course, all civil services recruits will be given pre-training material online portal and they will be tested on it right before their Foundation Course starts.

“This will allow us to reorient the Foundation Course to have more focus on case studies, field and skill-based training,” a senior official added. “Most of the theoretical components of the FC will be completed before it begins.”

The new recruits will be given access to high-order training inputs through the government’s online training platform iGoT.

“We assume that once these recruits have gone through the rigour of the UPSC, we can straight away expose them to high order training through iGoT, and ensure that once they come to the academy for the Foundation Course, their focus is on application-based training.”

Senior officials added that the recruits will be evaluated for the standardised test and their performance will determine their intra-service seniority through their careers.

There is another evaluation level to the recruitment process.

While civil servants are tasked with their services and cadre based on their respective UPSC ranks, these ranks are not final. Over the course of their two-year training post-recruitment, officers are evaluated using criteria several times in their Foundation Course and Professional Course, among others.

Only after these two years, their rank is finalised and their intra-service seniority may change according to these evaluations.

In the latest development, the government is adding one more level of evaluation to this process.

It was only last year that the PM Narendra Modi-led government made the Foundation Course mandatory for all civil servants.

While previously, the Foundation Course was compulsory for just seven civil services, in an attempt to make the civil services more cohesive and less hierarchical, the government had launched a Common Foundation Course last year.

Alike the Common Foundation Course, the pre-training test will also be made mandatory for all the 20+ civil services in India.