'Way Too Many Young Kids Wasting Their Time': Sanjeev Sanyal On UPSC 'Craze'

Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAM) to Prime Minister is against the idea of wasting young years in appearing for civil services. He cautions that only those who want to be administrators should be appearing for the exam.

On ‘The Neon Show Podcast’ by Siddharth Ahluwalia, Sanyal was discussing the downfall of Kolkata and the 'craze' for central government bureaucratic jobs in Bihar. He argued that only two kinds of imitative models are available for Bihari youth - becoming a local goon or civil servant. Though, civil servant is a better alternative of the two, even that indicates what Sanyal termed as ‘poverty of aspirations’.

“If you must dream, surely you should dream to be Elon Musk or Mukesh Ambani; why did you dream to become joint secretary?” asks Sanyal. He advocates youngsters to think about risk taking and increasing scales (stakeholders, buyers, sellers). 

Sanyal clarifies that he is not against the idea of appearing for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam. He says that every country needs bureaucracy. However, other sectors like science, sports, entrepreneurship and arts also need talent. That is why it is not productive to spend best years appearing for the UPSC exam.

“I think lakhs of people spend their best years, when a tiny number of a few thousand people actually are going to get in…it makes no sense. If the same energy is put into doing something else, we would be winning more Olympic gold medals, we would see better movies being made, we would see better doctors, entrepreneurs and scientists, and so on,” added Sanyal.

Sanyal also said that he discourages people from appearing for the exam. He appreciates only those aspirants who really want to be administrators and have built a mental mettle for administrative positions.  Sanyal elaborated further stating that not everyone is fully satisfied after cracking the coveted examination.

Without naming any civil servant, he said that many get frustrated towards the end of their careers. “In the end, life and bureaucracy is not meant for everybody and a large part of it (as with any other profession) is dull and boring, and is about passing files up and down. Unless you really wanted to do it, you are not going to be happy with it” said Sanyal.

The comments on the UPSC examination ruffled many feathers and led to multiple passionate reactions on X.

Sanyal clarified on X too that he was not against appearing for the UPSC exams. He was only against people spending five-eight years trying to become a bureaucrat. “The problem is that lakhs of people are spending 5-8 years repeatedly doing this exam as a "way of life". This is such a waste of youthful energy” wrote the economist. 

Sanyal added that his views is not unilateral and are shared by most bureaucrats.