In August 2016, The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) constituted a Committee under retired IAS and former Human Resource Development Secretary, BS Baswan to review how the UPSC conducts the Civil Service Examination (CSE).
It is believed that the Baswan committee has recommended a few changes in the CSE pattern. However, the Centre has not given in to demands of disclosing the recommendations forwarded by the aforesaid committee.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has responded to the RTI filed by some petitioners, saying that the Baswan Committee has submitted its report to the government on August 11 this year and reaffirmed that no further information will be shared publically, in this regard as of now.
Speculations are rife that one of the suggestions given by Baswan Committee to the Government is that of reducing the upper age limit for the Civil Service Examination (CSE).
If sources are to be believed, many aspects of the exam, such as the marking scheme, number of papers, model of examination, test duration, system of evaluation and weightage of marks has been critically analysed by the Committee.
For candidates who had ordinarily been domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir during the period from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 1989 and for reserved categories such as SC/ST and OBC, the upper age limit is extendable. Reliable sources have revealed that the committee has recommended upper age limit of 26 years for the general category candidates, whereas no changes will be made to the upper age limit of people belonging to SCs and ST categories.