From 2017-2021, 63% candidates who cleared UPSC Mains were from engineering background: Centre

Union Minister Jitendra Singh speaks during the Winter Session of the Parliament, in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: ANI

Around 63% candidates who were recommended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the Civil Services Examinations (Mains) in the years 2017-21 belonged to the engineering stream, according to data provided by the Ministry of Personnel in the Rajya Sabha on December 7.

The Civil Services Examinations (CSE) are conducted by the UPSC each year for recruitment to services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

Responding to a question by Sushil Kumar Modi (BJP), Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh provided gender-wise and educational background data of the candidates who cleared the Mains examinations of the CSE between the years 2017 and 2021.

The data showed that as many as 4,371 cleared the Mains examination in the said period, out of which 2,783 candidates were from the engineering stream, 1,033 candidates from humanities, 315 science stream and 240 candidates had studied medical science. But when it came to higher degree, 597 postgraduates in humanities and 243 postgraduates in engineering cleared the examinations.

The number of candidates recommended for the Mains in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 stood at 1,056, 812, 922, 833 and 748 respectively. Women candidates who cleared the examinations stood at 254, 193, 220, 238 and 201 in the said years.

The medium of writing of the recommended candidates during the last five years were Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, English, Dogri and Maithili.

The successful candidates chose political science and international relations, sociology, anthropology and geography as optional subjects in the Mains examination.