The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Friday announced that the civil services preliminary examination for the year 2020 will take place on October 4. The examination had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is also said that the personality test of the candidates selected through last year’s preliminary and mains will resume from July 20. This year’s preliminary test was earlier scheduled to be held on May 31.
Personnel Minister Jitendra Singh told PTI that the release of a fresh date for the civil services exam would allow certainty to lakhs of aspirants.
The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is held annually in three stages — preliminaries, mains and interview — by the UPSC to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), among others. After clearing the rounds, the candidates have to take the training programme. On average, 900,000 to 1,000,000 candidates apply every year and the number of candidates sitting in the preliminary examination is approximately 550,000.
The CSE is based on the British era Imperial Civil Service tests, as well as the civil service tests administered by old Indian empires. It is considered to be the most challenging competitive examination in India.
