UPSC IAS/IFS, Civil Services Exam Notification 2023 Released

F.No. 1/5/2022-E.I(B) : Preliminary Examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts mentioned below will be held by the Union Public Service Commission on 26th May, 2024 in accordance with the Rules published by the Department of Personnel & Training in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 1st Feb, 2024. All candidates must carefully read the Civil Services Examination-2024 Rules together with all the Appendices along with the Annexures thereof and this Examination Notice derived from the CSE Rules-2024 in entirety for gaining awareness of the current Rules and Regulations as changes may have been incorporated since the previous Examination Rules.

(i) Indian Administrative Service
(ii) Indian Foreign Service
(iii) Indian Police Service
(iv) Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’
(v) Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’
(vi) Indian Corporate Law Service, Group ‘A’
(vii) Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’
(viii) Indian Defence Estates Service, Group ‘A’
(ix) Indian Information Service, Group ‘A’
(x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’
(xi) Indian P&T Accounts and Finance Service, Group ‘A’
(xii) Indian Railway Protection Force Service, Group ‘A’
(xiii) Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Indirect Taxes) Group ‘A’
(xiv) Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) Group ‘A’
(xv) Indian Trade Service, Group ‘A’ (Grade III)
(xvi) Indian Railway Management Service, Group ‘A’
(xvii) Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Group ‘B’ (Section Officer’s Grade)
(xviii) Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service (DANICS), Group ‘B’
(xix) Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service (DANIPS), Group ‘B’
(xx) Pondicherry Civil Service (PONDICS), Group ‘B’
(xxi) Pondicherry Police Service (PONDIPS), Group ‘B’

Minimum Educational Qualification

A candidate must hold a Graduate degree of any of the Universities incorporated by an Act of the central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 or possess an equivalent qualification.

Age Limits: 

A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on 1st August, 2024, i.e. he must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1992 and not later than 1st August, 2003. 

Number of attempts:

Every candidate appearing at the examination who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted six (6) attempts at the CSE. However, relaxation in the number of attempts will be available to the SC/ST/OBC and PwBD category candidates who are otherwise eligible. The number of attempts available to such candidates as per relaxation is as under:

Note I : The terms – GL for General, EWS for Economically Weaker Sections, SC for Scheduled Castes, ST for Scheduled Tribes, OBC for Other Backward Classes and PwBD for Persons with Benchmark Disability – are used for denoting the categories of candidates taking an attempt at the Examination.

Click Here for Category wise Attempt Details

Exam Scheme:

Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary and Main Examination

A. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.

Note :

(i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions) and each will be of two hours duration.
(ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.
(iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III.

B. MAIN EXAMINATION:

The written examination will consist of the following papers :—

Qualifying Papers :

Paper-A

• (One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution): 300 Marks

Paper-B

• English: 300 Marks

Papers to be counted for merit

Paper-I: Essay: 250 Marks

Paper-II: General Studies-I: (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society): 250 Marks

Paper-III: General Studies -II: (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations): 250 Marks

Paper-IV: General Studies -III: (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management): 250 Marks

Paper-V: General Studies -IV: (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude): 250 Marks

Paper-VI: Optional Subject - Paper 1 250 Marks

Paper-VII: Optional Subject - Paper 2 250 Marks

Sub Total (Written test) 1750 Marks

Personality Test 275 Marks

Grand Total 2025 Marks

Candidates may choose any one of the optional subjects from amongst the list of subjects given in para 2 below:

NOTE :

(i) The papers on Indian languages and English (Paper A and paper B) will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.
(ii) Evaluation of the papers, namely, 'Essay', 'General Studies' and Optional Subject of all the candidates would be done simultaneously along with evaluation of their qualifying papers on ‘Indian Languages’ and ‘English’ but the papers on Essay, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates will be taken cognizance who attain 25% marks in ‘Indian Language’ and 25% in English as minimum qualifying standards in these qualifying papers.
(iii) The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
(iv) The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for Candidates belonging to Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (only Hearing Impairment sub-category) provided that they have been granted such exemption from 2nd or 3rd language courses by the concerned education Board/University. The candidate needs to provide an undertaking/self declaration in this regard in order to claim such an exemption to the Commission.
(v) Marks obtained by the candidates for the Paper I-VII only will be counted for merit ranking. However, the Commission will have the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all of these papers.
(vi) For the Language medium/literature of languages, the scripts to be used by the candidates will be as under :

Note : For Santhali language, question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.

2. List of optional subjects for Main Examination :

(i) Agriculture
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
(iii) Anthropology
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Civil Engineering
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy
(viii) Economics
(ix) Electrical Engineering
(x) Geography
(xi) Geology
(xii) History
(xiii) Law
(xiv) Management
(xv) Mathematics
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering
(xvii) Medical Science
(xviii) Philosophy
(xix) Physics
(xx) Political Science and International Relations
(xxi) Psychology
(xxii) Public Administration
(xxiii) Sociology
(xxiv) Statistics
(xxv) Zoology
(xxvi) Literature of any one of the following languages:

Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

Application Fee:

Candidates (Except Female/SC/ST/Persons with Benchmark Disability Candidates who are exempted from payment of fee) are required to pay fee of Rs. 100/- (Rupees One Hundred only) either by remitting the money in any Branch of State Bank of India by cash or by using Net Banking facility of any bank or by using Visa/Master/RuPay/Credit/Debit Card/UPI Payment.

Applicants who opt for "Pay by Cash" mode should print the system generated Pay-in-slip during part II registration and deposit the fee at the counter of SBI Branch on the next working day only. "Pay by Cash” mode will be deactivated at 11.59 P.M. of 20th Feb, 2023 i.e. one day before the closing date; however applicants, who have generated their Pay-in- Slip before it is deactivated, may pay at the counter of SBI Branch during banking hours on the closing date. Such applicants who are unable to pay by cash on the closing date i.e. during banking hours at SBI Branch, for reasons whatsoever, even if holding valid pay-inslip will have no other offline option but to opt for available online Debit/Credit Card/UPI Payment or Internet Banking payment mode on the closing date i.e. till 06:00 P.M. of 21st Feb, 2023.

How to Apply:

Candidates are required to apply online by using the website upsconline.nic.in. It is essential for the applicant to register himself/herself first at One Time Registration (OTR) platform, available on the Commission’s website, and then proceed for filling up the online application for the examination. OTR has to be registered only once in life time. This can be done anytime throughout the year. If the candidate is already registered, he/she can proceed straightway for filling up the online application for the examination.

Important Dates:

• LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS: 05th March, 2024 till 18:00 Hours.

Courtesy: UPSC