PRATIBHA Setu – Bridging merit and opportunity

Time of India

22-06-2025

Dr Onkar Singh has been the founder Vice Chancellor of the Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur (U.P.), the first non-affiliating technical University of the U.P. state. Currently, he is Vice Chancellor of Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun (Uttarakhand)- INDIA. LESS ... MORE
Kudos to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for launching the aptly titled initiative 'PRATIBHA Setu'; i.e. Professional Resource And Talent Integration – Bridge for Hiring Aspirants, formerly known as Public Disclosure Scheme (PDS). As per the UPSC, this strategic initiative will enable verified employers—including ministries, PSUs, autonomous bodies, and private organisations—to access details of non-recommended willing candidates who cleared all stages of the eight prestigious direct recruitment UPSC examinations but were not included in the final
merit list. This will bring together the prospective employers and the meritorious job seekers who have already proved their worth by succeeding in preliminary and main examinations and reached the interview stage but could not get into the final list just for lack of a few marks.
Now it is up to the government departments and public/private sector organizations to offer employment to these industrious and assiduous young ones who have already developed a certain level of understanding as evinced by passing two stringent filters namely the preliminary and main examination stages of Civil Services Examination and other examinations for Indian Forest Service, Central Armed Police Forces, Engineering Service, Geo-Scientist, CDS, Indian Economic Service/Statistical Service, and Medical Services. This cohort widely takes care of candidates possessing almost all diverse educational backgrounds.
This admirable initiative is at a time, when the selection cycles for jobs are not only too long but also uncertain due to various structural, procedural, and cultural issues leading to unforeseen circumstances like paper leakage, question paper defects, breach of examination at pre or post examination stages, etc. These factors
eventually yield mental fatigue, career uncertainties, missing opportunities, financial burden, and on top of all the loss of trust in the system prevailing in the country.
A look at the performance of the job recruitment agencies at the state and central level, the job recruitment processes carried out by UPSC are still considered to be sacrosanct barring a few aberrations which are attributed to the part of candidates. Undeniably, the Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union Public
Service Commission is one of the most prestigious and elaborate examinations in the country which is full of uncertainties for candidates due to three discrete stages collectively deciding the final outcome. Besides, the exam cycle of nearly one year leads to loss of year on year for any UPSC aspirant who is unable to succeed and
thus the continued pursuit to try up to the last attempt is eventually a loss as the society is unable to reap the potential of such youth.
To appreciate the relevance of PRATIBHA – SETU, let us delve into the detailed statistics of CSE – 2024 which shows that in this year 5,83,213 out of 9,92,599 enrolled candidates actually appeared in the Preliminary examination. Out of these total of 14,627 candidates qualified for appearance in the Written (Main) Examination, and from these, 2,845 candidates qualified for the Personality Test (PT) of the examination. Finally, 1009 candidates (725 men and 284 women) have been recommended by the Commission for appointment to various Services. Thus, out of all those who appeared in the interview, 1836 candidates who appeared in the
interview have been left out, however, some of them have done fairly well in the Mains Examination and some have done well in the Personality Test. Indisputably, all these meritorious candidates who have reached the last stage will be either reappearing or quitting their aspiration to serve the country through Civil Services or
similar other services.
Undoubtedly, these are brilliant minds having a reasonably good understanding of the country and performed well in 9 distinct papers of the Mains Examination. It is worth mentioning that those whose names are in the list of 1009 and those whose names could not find a place in the final list do not have many variations. At times it is so painful that at the same cut-off marks, some are in and some are out. The cut- off for CSE 2024 was 947 and there are many candidates who have secured above 900 who are worthy in all respects, but it is the sheer chance that has played the role and they are out.
If the country is unable to utilize its potential for the good of the other departments/organizations/ Public Service Undertakings of Govt of India /state, then it is a loss of opportunity to the nation. Also, the timing of using their capabilities at appropriate time is very critical and should be done at the earliest in the interest of the nation
which has already invested so much in their upbringing and assessing their potential in different stages.
Thus, the prudence lies in considering all interested candidates for direct recruitment to all government services and others, other than those covered under the Civil Services Examination and other 07 Examinations for which UPSC acts as a recruiter and all other public sector and private sector organizations.
Thus, it is a welcoming move by the UPSC to maximize the yield of its efforts and expedite the process of recruitment for all the interested other government departments, organizations, Public Sector Undertakings, etc. who wish to quickly employ these readily available candidates who have marginally lost.
With, the initiative of inviting prospective employers to select suitable human resources amongst those who have marginally lost, not only the candidates will get employed early but also the recruitment cycles of such employers will be shortened. This yields a happy situation of earliest engagement of youth use in the service of the nation and ensures that they do not waste their time merely preparing and trying their luck.
Going by the expected outcome of PRATIBHA Setu, it appears that this practice of maximising the utility of the efforts put in any recruitment cycle should be adopted by all state public service commissions and agencies carrying out recruitments fairly and with integrity. This will not only eliminate the multiplicity of recruitment processes but also help in eliminating long recruitment cycles and quicker employment of youth and usher in the realm of one recruitment process for maximum jobs.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.