More than half-a-century ago, when I entered the civil services, their structure and their requirements were radically different. The UPSC examination tilted heavily towards the humanities. They resembled more the graduate and post graduate examinations of those days, the focus essentially being the capacity to write long answers to questions in English, a broad understanding of the world and current developments, a capacity to read fast and thoroughly and to assimilate quickly. Administration then was file based and what was being tested was the ability to contribute effectively to decision making through the file process.
The emphasis then was also on recruiting officers who were young and, therefore, less conditioned and more “trainable”. The age limits were 20 to 23 for the Indian Police Service, 21 to 24 for other services, with some latitude for reserved categories. No candidate was allowed to appear more than twice for the UPSC examinations. Toppers were generally from amongst those who had appeared for the first time, usually from the...
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