The Foundation Course for every batch of civil servants recruited through the Civil Services Examination (CSE), conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) every year, usually begins at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie by late August or early September, and concludes in December.

Its commencement this year, for the 958 candidates who cleared CSE 2025, was listed in the LBSNAA’s calendar as the last week of August. However, the training course has still not begun.

This is the first time since Independence that the Foundation Course has been stalled, leaving an entire batch of future administrators in the cold.

After the Supreme Court’s March 11, 2026 judgment on the determination of “equivalence” with regard to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) creamy layer, the Centre moved the apex court on August 24 — barely three weeks before the six-month deadline for the implementation of the court’s order was to expire — seeking certain clarifications.

On…