Just over a month after they exhaled, having cleared one of the country's toughest exams, this year's recruits for India's civil services are experiencing a new case of nerves. The Prime Minister's Office has proposed in a note last week that the allocation of the new recruits to different services - the police or the foreign service, for example - should be based not just on their marks in the UPSC or Union Public Service Commission exam, but also on the basis of how they perform in a "foundation course" that lasts three months and serves as an orientation exercise.
