A series of reforms have been undertaken to make recruitment to central government jobs through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) faster, more transparent and secure, including measures to enhance the credibility and integrity of competitive exams, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday. 

There are two recruitment agencies under the administrative control of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) — Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The UPSC has introduced several reforms which have reduced the recruitment cycle further from over 15 months to about 13 months, said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel. 

The reforms include a modular online application portal to simplify the application process, AI-based verification of civil services examination attempts, face authentication to prevent impersonation and release of provisional answer keys with a structured representation mechanism, he said.