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Economic Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Economic Times
Would you opt something that has 99.9% failure rate? Sanjeev Sanyal compares UPSC preparation as 'opium'
Synopsis Economist Sanjeev Sanyal has criticised the intense focus on India's civil services exam, highlighting its low success rate and the role of coaching centres. He argues that talented individuals are trapped in a cycle of preparation, leading to a misallocation of resources. Sanyal questions the value of pursuing a career path with such high failure rates when other opportunities exist. ANI Economist and PM-EAC member Sanjeev Sanyal (File photo) Economist and PM-EAC member Sanjeev Sanyal has strongly criticised the culture surrounding preparation for India's civil services examination, calling it a massive misallocation of talent driven by what he described as a 'coaching class mafia'. In a recent podcast with CA Kushal Lodha, Sanyal questioned the wisdom of pursuing an exam with a 99.9% failure rate as a primary life goal.'Now tell me how many things are there with a 99.9% failure rate that you would recommend somebody to do unless it has a very large payoff?' Sanyal said, adding, 'If you're going to take such a large risk—why become a bureaucrat?' While clarifying that he was not opposed to those who genuinely want to become civil servants, he criticised the prolonged cycles of preparation many aspirants are drawn into. 'There are people who have now become professional UPSC aspirants... they spend years and years doing it. I think it's a complete waste of human resources.'This is not the first time Sanyal has spoken on this issue. In March 2024, Sanyal was among the first prominent voices to publicly warn about the growing obsession with the UPSC exam. He said, 'Way too many young kids who have so much energy are wasting their time trying to crack UPSC.'Sanyal argued that the most talented students, not average ones, are being pulled into what he called a 'trap.' He said, 'It's the supposedly talented guy in the class because this is the only guy the family will borrow, beg, and send them to live in Mukherji Nagar in Delhi. So we are taking the best people in our system and instead of putting them to some productive use, we are putting them where there is a 99.9% failure rate.' He blamed the coaching industry for sustaining the system, describing it as one that 'sells opium' to aspirants. 'Imagine the product they're selling—it's a product that is going to fail you 99.9% of the time. And it's worse than that, because even the 0.1% who get through are not all going to do exciting things in life,' he noted that only a small number of those who succeed in the exam go on to hold top positions such as Cabinet Secretary. 'The bulk of them will do mostly mundane things,' he said, questioning why similar energy is not directed toward other career paths such as sports, entrepreneurship, writing or the arts. He added, 'The success rates of entrepreneurs are much, much higher than 0.1%.'When asked whether MBA entrance exams like CAT, which also involve high competition, fall in the same category, Sanyal disagreed. 'Many of them get through to something else. I don't think there is a large number of people who take CAT every year for five, six, and seven years.'On the Chartered Accountancy track, Sanyal said it does not fit the same pattern, as most students pursuing CA have a genuine interest in the subject. 'Two to three years is perfectly fine. That's even true for UPSC if that's what you want to do in life. First of all, be clear you want to do that.'Sanyal said the UPSC craze has turned into a culture. 'My experience is that UPSC giving is actually a culture now. Most of those people don't actually want to be civil servants. If they actually showed them the life of a civil servant, they would not want to be there.'He added that even successful candidates often reattempt the exam to join what they perceive as higher-ranking services. 'So that tells me one thing—even the successful people are not happy. So they are now on the opium.'
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Would you opt something that has 99.9% failure rate? Sanjeev Sanyal compares UPSC preparation as 'opium'
Economist and PM-EAC member Sanjeev Sanyal has strongly criticised the culture surrounding preparation for India's civil services examination , calling it a massive misallocation of talent driven by what he described as a 'coaching class mafia'. In a recent podcast with CA Kushal Lodha, Sanyal questioned the wisdom of pursuing an exam with a 99.9% failure rate as a primary life goal. Questions logic of UPSC as a career goal 'Now tell me how many things are there with a 99.9% failure rate that you would recommend somebody to do unless it has a very large payoff?' Sanyal said, adding, 'If you're going to take such a large risk—why become a bureaucrat?' Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program While clarifying that he was not opposed to those who genuinely want to become civil servants, he criticised the prolonged cycles of preparation many aspirants are drawn into. 'There are people who have now become professional UPSC aspirants... they spend years and years doing it. I think it's a complete waste of human resources .' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If you have a mouse, play this game for 1 minute Navy Quest Undo This is not the first time Sanyal has spoken on this issue. In March 2024, Sanyal was among the first prominent voices to publicly warn about the growing obsession with the UPSC exam. He said, 'Way too many young kids who have so much energy are wasting their time trying to crack UPSC.' Coaching industry sells 'opium' Sanyal argued that the most talented students, not average ones, are being pulled into what he called a 'trap.' He said, 'It's the supposedly talented guy in the class because this is the only guy the family will borrow, beg, and send them to live in Mukherji Nagar in Delhi. So we are taking the best people in our system and instead of putting them to some productive use, we are putting them where there is a 99.9% failure rate.' Live Events He blamed the coaching industry for sustaining the system, describing it as one that 'sells opium' to aspirants. 'Imagine the product they're selling—it's a product that is going to fail you 99.9% of the time. And it's worse than that, because even the 0.1% who get through are not all going to do exciting things in life,' he said. Calls civil service outcomes 'mundane' for most Sanyal noted that only a small number of those who succeed in the exam go on to hold top positions such as Cabinet Secretary. 'The bulk of them will do mostly mundane things,' he said, questioning why similar energy is not directed toward other career paths such as sports, entrepreneurship, writing or the arts. He added, 'The success rates of entrepreneurs are much, much higher than 0.1%.' Compares with CAT and CA exams When asked whether MBA entrance exams like CAT, which also involve high competition, fall in the same category, Sanyal disagreed. 'Many of them get through to something else. I don't think there is a large number of people who take CAT every year for five, six, and seven years.' On the Chartered Accountancy track, Sanyal said it does not fit the same pattern, as most students pursuing CA have a genuine interest in the subject. 'Two to three years is perfectly fine. That's even true for UPSC if that's what you want to do in life. First of all, be clear you want to do that.' Criticises aspirant culture and 'poverty of aspiration' Sanyal said the UPSC craze has turned into a culture. 'My experience is that UPSC giving is actually a culture now. Most of those people don't actually want to be civil servants. If they actually showed them the life of a civil servant, they would not want to be there.' He added that even successful candidates often reattempt the exam to join what they perceive as higher-ranking services. 'So that tells me one thing—even the successful people are not happy. So they are now on the opium.'
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Business Standard
29-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Streamlined processes help companies speed up voluntary closures
The time taken to close down a company in accordance with the Companies Act has seen a dramatic reduction from an average of 499 days to only 60 days over the past three years. And the timeline to submit final reports under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has come down to 200 days, according to a working paper by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC). Until 2021-22, voluntary liquidation, under the Companies Act, would take an average of 499 days. The main obstacles included the time taken by the registrar of companies (RoC) to publish notices of closure in newspapers. Further, there were no fixed timelines for each step and there would be multiple demands for document resubmissions. The government resolved the key issue by publishing weekly or fortnightly notices which itself brought the timeline to 195 days. In the IBC process, the paper highlighted, the delays were due to the time taken to obtain no-objection certificates (NoCs) from various departments, including the Income-Tax (I-T) department and a lack of standard operating procedure. In November 2021, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) brought out a clarification stating there is no NoC requirement from the I-T department. In April 2022, the timelines were reduced and IBBI also brought in a compliance certificate for voluntary liquidations with a checklist for faster processing of cases. The working paper by PM-EAC highlighted that the nuts-and-bolts reforms are not systematically researched, documented, or taught, but are an important part of a policymaker's toolkit. Before the IBBI amendments, the average time for submission of final reports took 499 days for cases with creditors and 461 days for cases without creditors, the paper said. 'One thing that can be improved further is faster processing at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)-level, so that the time taken for final closing of companies can be reduced after submission of the final report,' the working paper said. IBBI data showed that till December 2021, final reports for voluntary liquidations were submitted for 49 per cent cases and final orders for dissolution passes for only 25 per cent. But as of December 2024, of the 2,133 cases initiated for voluntary liquidation, final reports have been submitted for 75 per cent cases and 54 per cent cases have been closed by dissolution. The remaining 21 per cent are at the NCLT-level. The working paper highlighted that the setting up of the faceless Centralised Processing for Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) on May 1, 2023 fixed timelines for each step, identified nodal departments from each department and limited the number of resubmission requests by RoCs. The average time taken to strike off cases filed under this system reduced to only 90 days in 2023-24 and further to 60 days in 2024-25 until January. 'This is even better than what was envisaged when C-PACE was announced, which was getting the processing time to under six months,' the working paper said.
