Discontinuation of interviews for clerical recruitment in PSB

Giving news to celebrate too many aspiring candidates preparing for banking examination, the Ministry of Finance has asked all the public sector banks in India to discontinue interview round for recruitment of clerical and sub-staff posts. They are asked to strengthen their written examination for the recruitment process of the candidates for these posts as there would not be any personal interview round for the same. The decision was taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Independence Day of 2015, saying there is no need for holding interviews for junior level posts.

In a communication issued to the Chief Executives of all the 27 state-owned banks, the Department of Financial Services said, “PSBs may explore other alternatives to strengthen written examination such as by including psychometric tests, etc. to replace interview mechanism”. The deadline given to the public sector banks to implement the decision of the Prime Minister, of excluding personal interview for recruitment in lower level posts, has been set to 31 December, 2015. The decision to exterminate interview process was taken by the Cabinet Secretary in a meeting held on 13 November, 2015 in presence of Committee of Secretaries.

Terming it as a gift of New Year to the youth of the country seeking job opportunity in the banking sector, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that there would be no interviews for Class III and Class IV category recruitment of central government, from 1 January, 2016 onwards. This would be a major step to curb corruption and would instill transparency in the overall recruitment process.

The skill test or physical test on the other hand would continue as per the previous model of recruitment of candidates. The tests would be qualifying in nature. For specific posts, if a department or ministry wants to conduct interview round as well for the process of recruitment of candidates, then they have to present a detailed proposal to the DoPT for seeking exemption. There has to be approval of the minister in charge as well. DoPT has asked the ministries and concerned banks to send a consolidated report in this regard by 7 January, 2016.