In July 2000, under whose chairmanship did the Union Public Service Commission constitute a committee to review the Civil Services Examination?

Question

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Correct — D, Professor Yoginder Kumar Alagh. In July 2000, the UPSC set up a committee headed by economist Prof. Y.K. Alagh to review the pattern of the Civil Services Examination. The committee's 2001 report recommended replacing the General Studies paper of the Preliminary Examination with an objective Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), and suggested continuing the optional-subject paper while raising its standard. It took nearly a decade for the CSAT idea to be implemented — the government approved it in 2010, and it was introduced as General Studies Paper-II of the Preliminary Examination from 2011.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) A noted economist best known for chairing the University Grants Commission (2006–2011) and for work on OBC/backward-classes issues — not the UPSC's 2000 exam-pattern review committee.  (b) Not associated with the UPSC's Civil Services Examination pattern review of this era.  (c) An academic administrator — former Vice-Chancellor of JNU and later UGC Chairman — from a much later period, not connected to the 2000 committee.

Concept: UPSC periodically reviews the Civil Services Examination's pattern through expert committees. The July 2000 committee headed by Prof. Y.K. Alagh is the one credited with first recommending, in its 2001 report, the shift that eventually produced the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) — the biggest change to the Preliminary Examination's structure in the 2000s.

State PCS 2023 Q30 — Indian Polity PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q30 — Indian Polity PYQ with Answer