Modi Government has no plans to either reduce IAS age limit or the number of attempts: MoS DOPT

Modi Government has no plans to either reduce IAS age limit or the number of attempts: Minister of State- Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

(1) In reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Development of North Eastern (DoNER), MoS in PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, said that Government has no plans to either reduce the upper age limit or the number of attempts for civil services aspirants (CSE). The UPSC conducts the CSE annually to recruit candidates for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), etc. The three stages of the examination consist of the preliminary round, followed by the mains and interview.

Instead of reducing the age limit, the government has already announced that civil service aspirants -- who may have lost out due to changes in the exam pattern -- would get two additional attempts and consequential age relaxation.

(2) Responding to an apprehension expressed by some members about reports regarding reduction in the age limit for IAS / CSE examination, Dr Jitendra Singh clarified that the concern of the Members was justified because a section of media had recently come out with such a report which was unsubstantiated and the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) had also issued a rebuttal.

(3) As of today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the current status is that the upper age limit for the General category aspirants to appear in IAS / CSE exam is 32 years with maximum of 6 attempts, for Other Backward Classes (OBC) the age limit is 35 years with maximum of 9 attempts whereas for the SC / ST category the upper age limit is 37 years with unlimited number of attempts.“ It has also been decided that candidates who appeared in CSE 2011 would be given one more attempt in CSE 2015,” the minister said. (AGENCIES).

(4) In a reply to another supplementary alleging that the present question paper syllabus offered advantage to Engineering students by enabling them to secure higher marks, Dr Jitendra Singh said that there is an opinion in certain sections that engineering or maths students enjoy an advantage over students of Humanities while writing the IAS question paper in its present format and added, this issue along with the issue of inappropriate translation of certain phrases from English to Hindi, has also been referred to a committee of experts. “After due consideration, the central government has decided that in the Paper-II of Civil Services (Preliminary) examination, the marks of question-section on ‘English language comprehension skills’ are not to be included for gradation or merit, in the CSE 2014.

(5) He further informed that following an All Parliamentary Party meeting on the subject held on 23rd of November 2014, the DoPT has prepared a brief note citing chronological order in which from time to time different changes or modifications were affected in the IAS examination pattern from time to time beginning from Kothari report in 1970’s to Khanna’s report in 2011 and Nigavakar report in 2012. This brief note has been sent to the leaders of the political parties in the Parliament so that they may offer their suggestions in writing for further changes or modifications in the IAS pattern if required, he added.

Existing number of Attempts and Age-limit for UPSC - CSE

• Unreserved (General) – 6 & 32 years.
• OBC – 9 & 35 years.
• SC/ST – unlimited & 37 years.
• PH (Physically Handicapped) – 9 in General PH, 9 in OBC PH, unlimited in SC/ST PH & 42 in General PH, 45 in OBC PH, 47 in SC/ST PH.

Newspaper updates regarding UPSC age-limit and attempts controversy

• No change in age limit, attempts for this year: DoPT – The Hindu.
• Govt says no to UPA move to lower UPSC age limit – Hindustan Times.
• No Proposal to Reduce Age Limit for Civil Services: Govt-Outlook
• No proposal to reduce age limit for civil services: Govt-The hindu businessline
• No change in age limit, attempts for civil service aspirants-Indiatoday
• UPSC exam: No proposal to relax upper age limit- The Pioneer
• No proposal to reduce upper age limit for civil services aspirants: Centre – News on Air.