Caste aside: hide names to curb Dalit job bias in India, study says

Concealing candidates' surnames in the ultra-competitive civil service exam would help to overcome caste prejudice, report urges

The exam is considered to be the country's toughest - about a million people sit it every year vying for only a thousand or so vacancies in India's hallowed civil service. Now a report suggests that it would be much fairer if all the candidates' surnames were kept secret throughout the application process, as about 90% of Indian surnames reveal a person's caste.

Candidates' names are currently concealed, along with their religion, when they sit the written tests. But after the exam, the names of those who qualify for the final interview stage are used. And this, according to the report, scuppers the chances of Dalits, the lowest Hindu caste once called untouchables", because of the innate bias of interviewers.