B L Razdan
It is no secret that the civil service exams of India and China are among the toughest in the world. The UPSC Civil Services Exam in India and the Gaokao in China are particularly renowned for their difficulty and low pass rates. Both exams are known for their challenging nature, high stakes, and the immense pressure they place on the aspirants. The difficulty stems from the intense competition, the vastness of the syllabus, and the unpredictable nature of the exams.
Every year there are more than 10,000 aspirants who clear all stages of the UPSC exams but do not make it to the final merit list. It is natural, though unfortunate, that some aspirants miss the final selection yardstick by a whisker. There can be no denying that most of them are as good as the ones who finally make it to the selection list.
To create new opportunities for talented UPSC aspirants who narrowly miss the final selection, the Union Public Service Commission, on June 20, 2025, launched “Pratibha Setu”, a digital platform designed to link non-recommended yet deserving candidates with employers from the government and private sectors.PRATIBHA Setu, as the name suggests, stands for Professional Resource And Talent Integration – Bridge for Hiring Aspirants. Itis a strategic initiative that allows verified employers-including ministries, PSUs, autonomous bodies, and private organizations-to access details of non-recommended willing candidates who cleared all stages of UPSC exams but didn’t make it to the final merit list.This marks a significant shift in UPSC’s engagement with the private sector and job market.
The UPSC’s announcement about the launch of its Pratibha Setu window on its official portal is set to become a game changer for civil service aspirants.Earlier known as the Public Disclosure Scheme, the government’s top recruiter will allow PSUs and corporate employers to connect with talent who have cleared the UPSC entrance examination, but haven’t been recommended for absorption within the civil services.Now, the commission will beproviding login IDs to potential employers, including private organisations that have registered with the portal, to voluntarily recruit these candidates.
This admirable initiative comes at a time, when the selection cycles for jobs are not only too long but also uncertain due to various structural, procedural, and cultural issues leading to unforeseen circumstances like paper leakage, question paper defects, breach of examination at pre or post examination stages, etc. These factorseventually yield mental fatigue, career uncertainties, missing opportunities, financial burden, and to top all of these, the loss of trust in the system prevailing in the country.
Barring a few aberrations, the performance of the job recruitment agencies at the state and central level, do the job of recruitment processes that is still considered to be sacrosanct. Undeniably, the Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union PublicService Commission is one of the most prestigious and elaborate examinations in the country which is full of uncertainties for candidates due to three discrete stages collectively deciding the final outcome. Besides, the exam cycle of nearly one year leads to loss of year on year for any UPSC aspirant who is unable to succeed andthus the continued pursuit to try up to the last attempt is eventually a loss as the society is unable to reap the potential of such youth.
To have an empirical appreciation, let us have a look the statistics of CSE – 2024 which shows that in this year 5,83,213 out of 9,92,599 enrolled candidates actually appeared in the Preliminary examination. Out of these, total of 14,627 candidates qualified for appearance in the Written (Main) Examination, and from these, 2,845 candidates qualified for the Personality Test (PT) of the examination. Finally, 1009 candidates (725 men and 284 women) have been recommended by the Commission for appointment to various Services. Thus, out of all those who appeared in the interview, 1836 aspirants were left out, r, even as most of them have done fairly well in the Mains Examination and some have done well in the Personality Test. Indisputably, all these meritorious candidates who have reached the last stage will be either reappearing or quitting their aspiration.
Undoubtedly, these are brilliant minds having a reasonably good understanding of the country and performed well in 9 distinct papers of the Mains Examination. It is worth mentioning that those whose names are in the list of 1009 and those whose names could not find a place in the final list do not have many variations. At times it is so painful that at the same cut-off marks, some are in and some are out. The cut- off for CSE 2024 was 947 and there are many candidates who have secured above 900 who are worthy in all respects, but it is sheer chance that has played the role and they are out.
If the country is unable to utilize this talent and its potential for the good of the other departments/organizations/ Public Service Undertakings of Govt of India /state, then it is a loss of opportunity to the nation. Also, the timing of using their capabilities at appropriate time is very critical and should be done at the earliest in the interest of the nation, which has already invested so much in their upbringing and assessing their potential at different stages.
Thus, the prudence lies in considering all interested candidates for direct recruitment to all government services and others, other than those covered under the Civil Services Examination and other Examinations for which UPSC acts as a recruiter and all other public sector and private sector organizations.With, the initiative of inviting prospective employers to select suitable human resources amongst those who have marginally lost, not only the candidates will get employed early but also the recruitment cycles of such employers will be shortened. This will yield a happy situation of earliest engagement of the young talent in the service of the nation and ensure that they do not waste their time merely preparing and trying their luck.
It is, therefore, a welcome move by the UPSC to maximize the yield of its efforts and expedite the process of recruitment for all the interested other government departments, organizations, Public Sector Undertakings, etc. who wish to quickly employ these readily available candidates who have marginally lost.
(The author is , formerly of the Indian Revenue Service, retired as Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Chandigarh. Post-retirement)
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