UPSC Civil Services Exam: Govt examining report on age-limit, exam pattern

New Delhi: Report by the Baswan committee that suggested changes in civil service exam pattern and age limit is under examination. Last year on 9 August 2016, the committee had submitted its report to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). "The Baswan Committee's report along with UPSC's recommendations on it has been received on March 20, 2017 and the same is under examination," the Department of Personnel and Training said in response to an RTI query filed by a PTI correspondent. In August 2015, UPSC had constituted this expert committee under the chairmanship of the former human resource development secretary and retired IAS officer B.S. Baswan. This was done in order to review the scheme of civil services examination. Every year lakhs of aspirants appear for the civil service exam conducted by the UPSC in three stages—preliminary, mains and interview. This highly competitive is conducted in order to select officers for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others. Reportedly, the committee is understood to have recommended the reduction in upper age limit of 32 years to appear in the civil service exam. Last year in November, in a written reply the minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh had told Rajya Sabha has said: “The recommendations made by the committee including on pattern of civil service examination and age limit are presently under consideration of the UPSC”