UPSC plans to use facial recognition, Aadhaar-based authentication of candidates to prevent fraud
The tender process for the technological upgrades was launched amid allegations of wrongdoings against a trainee Indian Administrative Services officer.
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The Union Public Service Commission is planning to introduce technological upgrades to its examination system with Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication of candidates, facial recognition and security camera surveillance to prevent fraud.
The commission is a constitutional body that conducts the recruitment of officers to the All India Services and the Central Civil Services through examinations.
The technology will be used to “match and cross-check the biometric details” of the candidates and to monitor candidates during the examination “to prevent cheating, fraud, unfair means and impersonation”, the commission said in its tender document.
The Union Public Service Commission will share applicant data and images submitted during online registration with the service provider for Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication and facial recognition.
The technology will be used at examination centres to verify the identity of the candidates and prevent impersonation, it said.
“QR code on the Admit Card (containing roll number of the candidate) should be scanned to auto-fetch the candidate’s details from Application Database (provided by UPSC),” the tender document said. “In case QR code on Admit Card is not scannable, then manual entry of candidate’s roll number from Admit Card has to be done.”
The commission also announced that it plans to implement “CCTV/video surveillance with recording and live broadcast system to monitor various activities of the candidates and other persons deployed” at the examination centres across the country.
The service provider is required to install an adequate number of security cameras and enable live viewing of the video at the commission’s control room, according to the tender document.
The tender process seeking a service provider for these upgrades was launched on July 16.
This comes amid allegations of fraud against trainee Indian Administrative Service officer Puja Khedkar. She is accused of forging documents to appear for the Civil Services Examination on 12 occasions, far above the number of permitted attempts. The commission has filed a criminal case against Khedkar.
Further, there has been a controversy surrounding the 2024 undergraduate National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test. After the results of this year’s examination were announced on June 4, allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities came to light.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested 21 accused persons in the paper leak case from Bihar and Jharkhand so far.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, however, ruled out a re-examination, saying that there was not enough evidence to show a widespread leak of the question paper.