What Is UPSC?

 

What is UPSC?

It is the premier recruiting agency for the Government of India. UPSC is responsible for recruiting candidates for the All India Services, Central Services and Cadres, as well as the Armed Forces of the Union of India.

Some of the services for which the UPSC recruits candidates are the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Revenue Service, etc.

UPSC Exam Meaning

The full form of the UPSC is Union Public Service Commission.

UPSC conducts a National Level Exam for 24 services under the Central & State Government of India.

The UPSC is mandated by the Indian Constitution to make appointments to the All India Services and Central Services Group A and B, as well as to develop and update testing methodologies for these recruitments with input from various departments.

Apart from this, UPSC is also consulted on matters related to promotion and transfer of personnel as well as any disciplinary matters involving a civil servant serving in a civil capacity.

The headquarters of the commission is located in New Delhi. The contact details of the UPSC are as follows:

Postal Address: UNION PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi – 110069

Facilitation Counter: 011-23098543/23385271/23381125/23098591

Email: feedback-upsc@gov.in

The working hours of the Union Public Service Commission are from 10:00 AM till 5:00 PM on all central government working days.

Though the UPSC has functioning helplines for different examinations which are staffed whenever a particular application process is underway, candidates are advised not to contact them unless answers to their queries regarding the process are not available online.

The UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination every year. 

The UPSC CSE consists of three stages:

Civil Services Preliminary Examination: Civil Service Prelims or the Preliminary Examination is the first           level of examination. It comprises two papers containing objective questions.

• a) GS Paper -1 comprises 100 questions of 2 marks each. It must be noted that there is negative marking for wrong answers in both the papers. Each wrong answer would cost the candidate 1/3rd of the marks awarded for each question. Questions from Important National and International Events, Economy, Geography, Polity, History, Environment & Ecology and Science & Technology will be asked in this paper. The marks scored in this paper will be counted for preparing the list of candidates that would appear for the Civil Services Mains Examination.
• b) CSAT Paper or Paper -2 comprises 80 questions from quantitative aptitude, logical reasoning, reading comprehension, etc. A candidate, in order to qualify in this paper, must score 33% of the marks i.e., 67 out of 200 marks. However, this is just a qualifying paper and the marks scored will not be counted while arriving at the list of candidates who would be allowed to take up the next level of examination.

Civil Services Mains Examination: Mains Examination is the second level of Examination and consists of 9 papers with descriptive type questions, out of which 2 language papers are of qualifying nature. The marks scored by the candidate in the rest of the 7 papers i.e., Essay Paper, GS Paper-1, GS Paper-2, GS Paper-3, GS Paper-4, Optional Paper -1 and Optional Paper-2 will be taken for the purpose of determining whether or not the candidate will be summoned for the interview.

Civil Services Personality Test: The Personality Test is the final level of examination. Only those candidates who have managed to qualify the mains examination surpassing the cut off determined by the UPSC will be summoned for the interview.

The UPSC then prepares the final merit list, cumulating the scores of the candidates in the mains examination and the personality test. The candidates are then allocated the services, based on their preferences, the merit list as well as the category of the candidate and the vacancies in each category.