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Director’s Message
Innovativeness is inherent in the culture of IBPS. It has led to the launch of Project “Aspirations 2025”, essentially a BPR (Business Process Reengineering) initiative, in the year 2021. In its penultimate year now, it has not only served well the strategy of IBPS of reinventing itself to face the future, but its outcomes may well disrupt positively the Indian Assessment sector. Adopting the theme of ‘Year of Total Digitisation’ for FY 2023-24, IBPS launched three-fold digitization initiatives, viz., digitisation in internal operations (e.g., ‘Content Management System’ for test-preparation, internal administrative, HR and financial management), digitization of interface with clients (making MIS online, eliminating physical documents and expense settlement) and digitization facilitating processes related to candidates and external expert resources. A remarkable achievement has been, digitizing the post-exam interview process, enabling uploading of requisite documents online by the candidates and their online verification, besides capturing scoring by interview panels online in real-time. The year 2024-25 will carry forward these goals, being observed as the year of ‘Digital Innovation.’ The gains from the initiatives under “Aspirations 2025” will both be strategic, enabling IBPS to continue to set testing industry standards, and the incremental being higher efficiency and lower costs, as its business processes get constantly reinforced by the core values of ‘Speed, Accuracy & Confidentiality’.
Notwithstanding automation and digitization, banking remains a ‘People’s Business’, with service orientation still being the defining trait of a banker. Ever changing customer service requirements, elevated cyber security needs and increasingly complex compliances require banks to not just have adequate headcount, but also keep on inducting right talent with appropriate skill sets and aptitude at the right time, if the full strategic advantage of Human Resources is to be reaped by them. IBPS keeps on investing material and human resources into its testing systems to ensure that the psychometric tests, skill tests and technical & operational processes keep on evolving in step with the dynamic banking landscape.
The Government has been paying special attention to creating meaningful employment opportunities for the young population of India, over and above the new jobs naturally accruing from economic growth. To boost recovery after the COVID epidemic and to meet the aspirations of the Indian youth, the Government of India, ran a programme of ‘Rozgar Melas’, launched and steered by the Hon’ble Prime Minister himself, across India through the year 2023-24, pursuing a target to fill 10 lakh jobs in government departments, PSUs, autonomous bodies, field level organisations and partner state governments. Appointment letters were issued to thousands of successful young, aspirational candidates in such ‘Rozgar Melas’ held in video-conferencing mode, following easy, fair and transparent selection processes run by recruitment agencies, including UPSC, SSC, Railway Boards and IBPS.
In line with its perceived stature as a Testing Body at national level, after testing lakhs of candidates year after year, IBPS has been recommending final selections to the clients in BFSI sector in the range of about thirty thousand candidates per year and counting non-BFSI sector also, the total number notched up by IBPS goes up to about fifty thousand per year. That the examination schedules have been observed as sacrosanct over the years, barring Covid-19 period, with almost zero cancellations or postponements and that the recruitment cycles have been successfully completed within their respective deadlines, bears testimony to the proven processes and systems followed at IBPS.
At the national level, IBPS has been designated as a ‘Public Examination Authority’ (PEA), along with other major testing bodies like UPSC, RRB, Railway Recruitment Boards, NTA, under the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The top management of the Institute is associating closely with NRA and other peer PEAs and sharing its best practices for the formulation of ‘Normative Standards & Guidelines’ for public examinations. Thus, the Institute is making a major contribution to policy making related to the ecosystem of competitive/ public examinations.
The trust reposed by the Government of India by naming IBPS as a PEA and by allocating a major role, along with other national test bodies, for improving the public examination system is humbling. The confidence in the Institute displayed by State Governments, BFSI sector and other client organizations over the years is noteworthy. The Governing Board of IBPS has provided excellent and timely guidance, unflinching support and encouragement, without which it would not have been possible for IBPS to keep on putting up worthy performance. Sincere thanks are due to all our stakeholders and client organizations. It will be opportune to congratulate ‘Team IBPS’ for fulfilling the requirements of the clients diligently, with focus and determination.
With Best Wishes,
Place: Mumbai
Date: 31st March-2024
Sincerely,
(HARIDEESH KUMAR B)