India’s civil servant exam

This exam is possibly one of the most difficult in the world. You need an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of history, geography, economics and everything in between and the ability to marshal all those facts to answer a question like :<p>&quot;The internet is a manifestation of Max Weber&#x27;s iron cage of rationality. Discuss&quot;<p>In just 10-15 minutes.<p>Here&#x27;s a question paper : <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.upsc.gov.in&#x2F;questionpaper&#x2F;2013&#x2F;CSM%202013&#x2F;GS%20I.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.upsc.gov.in&#x2F;questionpaper&#x2F;2013&#x2F;CSM%202013&#x2F;GS%20I....</a><p>And<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.upsc.gov.in&#x2F;questionpaper&#x2F;2013&#x2F;CSM%202013&#x2F;GS%20I.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.upsc.gov.in&#x2F;questionpaper&#x2F;2013&#x2F;CSM%202013&#x2F;GS%20I....</a><p>And this is just one of the subjects. You have papers on English, an Indian language and also a paper on your subject of specialization and more ..<p>Some people question the merits of choosing civil servants based on such an exam but getting through a pretty impressive feat. I&#x27;d compare it to being a polymath Jeopardy champion or something. I&#x27;m pretty sure Indian Civil Servants are among the sharpest in the world.<p>In terms of effectiveness however , our bureaucracy is amongst the worst. Quite the paradox.

On similar lines is the Joint Entrance Exam (or JEE), the entrance test for admission into the Indian Institutes of Technology (and a toned-down version for admission into less selective institutes).<p>This year over 13 lakhs, or 1.3 million students appeared for the exam.<p>Being an applicant in the past year, I can state for a fact that the last pre-Uni year is one of the most stressful years for an Indian student aspiring to go into tech.<p>Sample JEE question paper: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jeeadv.iitb.ac.in&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;2013p1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jeeadv.iitb.ac.in&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;2013p1.pdf</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jeeadv.iitb.ac.in&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;2013p2.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jeeadv.iitb.ac.in&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;2013p2.pdf</a><p>Source: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;indiatoday.intoday.in&#x2F;education&#x2F;story&#x2F;jee-main-2015-number-of-aspirants-appearing-for-the-exam&#x2F;1&#x2F;413277.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;indiatoday.intoday.in&#x2F;education&#x2F;story&#x2F;jee-main-2015-n...</a>

The author does not pose the most important question.<p>Do we need the brightest minds in India doing foreign affairs ? Or should they be entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and politicians ?

One hypothesis that I have to explain why India is doing reasonably well in terms of economic growth in spite of the pervasive corruption is that the civil services, full of really really smart and driven people, are getting things done, and done right, in spite of the incompetence and disinterest of politicians.<p>Or maybe I&#x27;ve been watching one too many episodes of &quot;Yes Minister&quot;.

This makes getting funded by YC look relatively less daunting and positively straight to the point.

Isn&#x27;t it an enormous task to correct all these tests? If there are actually 500k+ applicants that write a three hour test with up to 5k words, that would probably take a staggering amount of man hours.

I&#x27;m told that UPSC discriminates BC&#x2F;SC&#x2F;ST aspirants for 300 marks in Personal Interview; Govt must ban personal interviews in all its recruitment;

It&#x27;s like the F2P&#x2F;IAP dynamic but in real life - &quot;here&#x27;s an incredibly difficult grind to get where you want to go. Or, you can slip me a few bucks and make this all go away...&quot;