Critics argue that while civil services are meant to draw talent across regions and social backgrounds, the increasing dependence on English risks excluding candidates educated in vernacular-medium institutions.
More than 200 candidates who'd cleared UPSC in 2023 and 2024 did so again to improve their rank. This time, they are not getting congratulations online.
As the 2026 cadre policy determines allocations for 25 state cadres, parallel state bureaucracies operate under different rules with no all-India dimension.
We select individuals capable of becoming Formula One drivers. Then we give them rickety Maruti 800s on potholed roads and expect championship lap times.
India’s civil services were once called the ‘steel frame’. But steel is forged in fire, not moulded in a coaching class. While dilution has made the exam easier, it has also made it harder to find the game-changers we need.
The story of UPSC isn’t just that of an exam but about how India defines merit, opportunity and fairness. Over the last 100 years, its journey has been one of constant churn, reforms and resets.
The new and improved Pratibha Setu portal isn’t just a lifeline for UPSC candidates. It also offers ministries, PSUs, and private companies a database of talented individuals.
Government tells Parliament toll collections touched Rs 70,278 crore in 2025-26, Rajasthan has highest number of toll plazas, while expenditure on operating plazas is not maintained centrally.
Our education system is a destroyer of all talent by enforcing learning by rote, pushing students to coaching classes to ‘crack’ competitive exams. And then, papers leak.
Remember this, at this rate, 50, 100, or maybe 200-250 years from now, far more Bharatiya languages will be endangered or extinct than today – if we don’t course correct now.
And then they say language attrition is real.
Remember this, at this rate, 50, 100, or maybe 200-250 years from now, far more Bharatiya languages will be endangered or extinct than today – if we don’t course correct now.