UPSC implements face authentication for prelims exam

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has implemented a robust face authentication system for the 2026 Civil Services and Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination, held on May 24. This initiative aims to prevent impersonation and enhance the integrity of one of India's most competitive examinations. The real-time face authentication protocol ensured that candidates appearing for the exam were the same individuals who submitted their photographs with their applications.

Across more than 2,072 examination venues, the system successfully verified nearly 550,000 candidates. This was achieved through a mobile-phone-based application utilized by over 7,000 invigilators simultaneously. The technology, developed in-house with technical support from the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, authenticated candidates in an average of 6-8 seconds. This rapid process processed approximately 12,000 authentications per minute, effectively preventing long queues at examination centers.

UPSC Chairman Ajay Kumar highlighted the initiative's goal of ensuring impersonation-free examinations. "The technology is fully developed in-house with the help of NeGD," he stated. "However, the challenge also lay in deploying the solution at scale, leveraging the existing invigilation workforce for face authentication, training them, and accomplishing all this within a short span of time." The commission developed a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) and conducted multiple training rounds for invigilators. Notably, the system requires no specialized hardware and operates on any Android smartphone, with invigilators using their own devices to reduce costs and logistical complexities.

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The technology is fully developed in-house with the help of NeGD. However, the challenge also lay in deploying the solution at scale, leveraging the existing invigilation workforce for face authentication, training them, and accomplishing all this within a short span of time.