Recently, NITI Ayog has recommended Indian government to limit the age of appearing up to 27 years for UPSC candidates. How will this affect the aspirants, if applied in future?

The proposal by NITI Aayog actually is :

To reduce the age of appearing for the Civil Services exam to 27 years.

Rationalization and harmonization of more than 60 plus central and state services.

Conduct a single civil services exam for recruitment into central, state and all-India services.

A central talent pool of recruits to be created which would then place candidates according to their profile and job description of the post.

According to me, these are welcome proposals in the direction of reforming civil services. A few months back, I was having a discussion with a friend on reforming government recruitment process and we concluded quite similar proposals.

Most of the state civil services, Indian forest services, Civil services exam check the same kind of knowledge. Why not have a single exam instead and reduce administrative burden and burden on candidates. If some specific knowledge is required, a separate paper can be held. For example, for Indian Forest Services, a separate paper on forestry and related knowledge can be held while scores of the essay and general studies paper of UPSC CSE exam can be used.

If a single civil services exam is conducted, it would also help candidates to prepare single-minded for one exam rather than a plethora of exams. In that case, even 27 years age limit will not be a problem. Earlier too, the age limit was 28 years with four attempts for the general category. Younger recruits will have a flexible frame of mind and would be more energetic. With increasing awareness among people and better career guidance, the candidates would be able to choose their desired career options early in life.

In addition to this, I would like more reforms to be seen such as :

Conduct a centralized test, something similar to GRE, for checking aptitude and reasoning skills. Such an exam should be conducted at least twice a year.

Many exams like RBI, SBI PO, SSC, CAT, CSAT etc. are organized by different organizations for this purpose. Rather than having different exams, why not have a single exam and share its score with different agencies.

Reduce the number of attempts in UPSC CSE to four.

Conduct UPSC CSE twice a year.

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