UPSC postpones civil services prelims 2021 exam to October 10 due to COVID spike

NEW DELHI: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Thursday announced its decision to postpone the June 27 civil services preliminary examination amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The exam will now be held on October 10, reported news agency PTI. 

"Due to the prevailing conditions caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Union Public Service Commission has deferred the civil services (preliminary) examination, 2021, which was scheduled to be held on 27th June 2021. Now, this examination will be held on 10th October 2021," a statement issued by the commission said. 

The IAS 2021 prelims exam was earlier scheduled to be conducted on June 27. The IAS 2021 notification was issued on March 4. The last date to apply for the IAS 2021 exam was March 24. The IAS 2021 notification was issued for 712 vacancies.

Last year the UPSC IAS prelims exam was scheduled for May 31, but it was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later it was conducted on October 4 across the nation.

The commission conducts civil services examination annually in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others. The IAS exam is one of the toughest exam conducted across the nation because of its passing percentage and syllabus.

The IAS exam is conducted across the nation simultaneously and it requires a large scale mobilisation of resources at the state level. The IAS exam centres are finalised by the district magistrate and the confirmation of exam centres is sent to the UPSC through the Chief Secretaries of the respective states. The police personnel are mobilised for the security of the IAS question papers and at the UPSC exam centres.

The IAS Prelims exam is an objective type exam conducted offline in the pen and paper mode. There are two question papers in the IAS Prelims exam and both the papers are of qualifying in nature. The marks secured in the IAS prelims exam is not considered for the UPSC result. The IAS Prelims exam is conducted in the following pattern.