IBPS to conduct 5 ‘common' exams every year for bank jobs

The day may not be far off when Dr Manmohan Singh, or any future prime minister, will just have to call up the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) to fill up a vacancy at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). That was the aspirational goal that Infosys Chief Mentor, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, gave to IBPS in the course of an address at its campus on Tuesday evening.

IBPS currently functions as an autonomous body that is mainly engaged in conducting competitive exams for recruitment to clerical and officers' posts in the banking sector (public sector). Its advisory services (competency mapping, recruitment, promotion, talent retention etc) have also been used by other private organisations.

IBPS proposes to conduct five exams every year for the banking sector's recruitment needs, its Director, Mr M. Balachandran said. There will be two exams for probationary officers, two for clerical levels and one for specialist officers (agricultural, law, technical).

The scores provided by IBPS for the common written exam will be valid for a year and successful candidates can apply to any bank of their choice based on these scores. Earlier, candidates had to write multiple exams conducted by each bank for their vacancies. The first such common test for probationary officers was conducted in September while the first set of clerical exams just got over on December 11. The first common test for specialised officers will be conducted in March 2012.

Last year, IBPS screened 13 million candidates for employment while this year it is expected to screen 15 million candidates. Urging the institute to expand its activities, Mr Narayana Murthy complimented it for ‘providing hope' of gainful employment to 1.5 crore Indians, of whom about a third were women.

He also set a ‘stretch' goal – asking IBPS to design a series of tests and develop new methodologies (with at least a 95 per cent confidence level) that would help detect leadership qualities in candidates for industry and the banking sector.