Economy booms but India’s young hanker for government jobs

Sunil Kumar, a 30-year-old, has spent the last nine years of his life chasing a job in the Indian government.

Packed with scores of others in makeshift classrooms under tin roofs with barely enough light and air, Kumar has spent years cramming for a variety of tests, including the prestigious civil services exam needed to get a job as a federal government bureaucrat.

He has also tried for a provincial civil services post and two other tests for lower-level government positions.