UPSC implements real-time face authentication for civil providers exams
The Union Public Service Fee (UPSC) efficiently applied real-time face authentication throughout all examination venues in the course of the Civil Providers and Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination this 12 months, a authorities assertion mentioned on Thursday.
The face-authentication protocol ensures that the candidate who uploaded {a photograph} whereas submitting the applying is similar particular person showing for the examination with the admit card.
The system enabled dwell verification of candidates at examination venues by means of a mobile-phone-based utility utilized by invigilators, serving to eradicate impersonation. Earlier this 12 months, the fee had mentioned, “All candidates showing within the UPSC examination will endure face authentication on the venue.”
The UPSC Civil Providers Examination is without doubt one of the best exams within the nation, attracting numerous candidates yearly. Final 12 months, 937,876 candidates utilized for the examination, of whom 576,793 really appeared on Might 25, 2025. A complete of 14,161 candidates certified for the Written (Predominant) Examination, and a pair of,736 of these certified for the Persona Check. Lastly, solely 958 candidates had been chosen for appointment to totally different providers.
In response to the UPSC assertion, the real-time face-authentication train was performed throughout all 2,072 examination venues nationwide throughout this 12 months’s Civil Providers (Preliminary) Examination on Might 24. The appliance was developed and applied by the Fee with technical assist from the Nationwide e-Governance Division (NeGD) below the Ministry of Electronics and Data Expertise.
Fee’s assertion mentioned that, as a part of the method, each candidate was required to endure face authentication earlier than being allowed entry into the examination corridor. UPSC additionally developed an in depth customary working process (SOP) for the train, which it shared with states, districts and examination venues. A number of rounds of coaching had been subsequently performed for invigilators.
The Fee mentioned the system doesn’t require any specialised {hardware} and might function on any Android smartphone. Invigilators used their very own cell phones for the authentication course of, decreasing {hardware} prices and easing logistical necessities.
The appliance authenticated candidates inside six to eight seconds on common, guaranteeing easy entry and stopping queues at examination centres, the Fee mentioned. It added that greater than 7,000 invigilators used the applying concurrently and, throughout peak entry hours, it processed round 12,000 authentications each minute.
UPSC Chairman Ajay Kumar mentioned the initiative aimed toward guaranteeing impersonation-free examinations. “The expertise is totally developed in-house with assist of NeGD. Nevertheless, the problem additionally lay in deploying the answer at scale, leveraging the prevailing invigilation workforce for face authentication, coaching them, and carrying out all this inside a brief span of time,” he added.
