Reforming the IAS Route

When a person has crossed the age of 30, his value system and ethical framework have already been formed; it is very difficult to mould him/her differently

- ALOK RANJAN

The Civil Services results have just been declared, and the photographs and interviews of the successful candidates are being flashed across newspapers, fuelling the civil service dream of millions. It is indeed a great day for those who have made it, and they deserve all the congratulations for their resilience, determination, intelligence, and hard work. At the same time, there are hundreds of thousands who have not succeeded, and they are anxiously wondering about their future. For some, the portals of a life of meaning and purpose have been opened, but for others, it is a depressing moment, and they are feeling lost.

After reading the interviews of the selected candidates, I was surprised to find that most of them had succeeded after several attempts—perhaps even four to five. There was hardly anyone who had made it in the first attempt. This disturbed me. It is true that it is one of the toughest exams, with less than a thousand getting selected out of several lakhs who write the exam. Still, I feel that there should be a much larger percentage of candidates who succeed in the first attempt. When I was selected for the IAS in 1978, there were a significant number of candidates who qualified in the first attempt, and I wonder why this is not happening anymore. The nature of the exam needs to be reviewed to address this anomaly.