India’s UPSC seeks biometric authentication tech to combat civil service exam fraud

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has issued a call for tenders to implement digital biometric technologies aimed at bolstering measures against impersonation, cheating, and fraud in its examinations.

This move comes in the wake of a recent controversy involving trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, who allegedly manipulated her identity to sit for a civil services exam. In response, the UPSC has issued a show-cause notice seeking the cancellation of her appointment, the Hindustan Times reports.

The new measures will include Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication, facial recognition, and live AI-based CCTV surveillance.

The UPSC, which conducts 14 major examinations and numerous recruitment tests and interviews annually across a wide range of venues—from 1 to 3,000 locations in up to 80 centers—will implement these technologies in a bid to ensure fair and secure examinations for up to 1.2 million candidates.

The selected service provider will be responsible for implementing these measures as per the detailed scope of work outlined by the UPSC.

The UPSC plans on supplying the examination schedule, venue details, and candidate specifics such as name, roll number, and photos for authentication and verification purposes.

The UPSC’s security measures will focus on biometric authentication, as well as QR code scanning to prevent impersonation. Hand-held devices with QR code scanners will be deployed at each examination venue, according to the recent document UPSC released.

Additionally, a web server will facilitate real-time attendance monitoring with GPS coordinates and timestamps for each enrolment, ensuring compliance with the examination schedule.

UPSC says candidate data will be downloaded to hand-held devices two days before the examination, and facial recognition will be performed using a stateless transaction of images.

The tender, dated July 18, was issued to Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), and states that the commission reserves the right to determine whether and how to implement these technologies, potentially using them either partially or fully during its examinations.

A recent report found that India is tackling widespread Aadhaar fraud by urging government institutions to enhance their processes and intensifying crackdowns on scammers.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  government purchasing  |  identity verification  |  India  |  tender