Fourth Year Running, IAS Vacancies Come Down

Hyderabad: For the fourth consecutive year, the UPSC has decreased the number of vacancies in the civil services examinations.

The educationists’ feel that the competition would be tougher in view of the rising number of IAS aspirants and the dipping number of vacancies.

"At any cost the openings can't go down below 900 as the government offices face acute manpower crunch," said an IAS coaching trainer from Hyderabad.

For this year, 980 vacancies have been notified by UPSC for Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT). The fall started from 2014 which notified 1291 vacancies; in 2015 it got reduced to 1129 and last year, it had 1079.

At any cost the openings can’t go down below 900 as the government offices face acute manpower crunch

Last year, as many as 15,445 candidates were selected for the Mains out of over 10 lakh applicants. Only 2,961 were called for the personality test. This year, it is estimated that as many as 14,028 candidates could get a call for Mains and 2686 may qualify for the personality test.