UPSC

The Civil Services Examination is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, and Indian Police Service.

IAS exam is the most coveted exam in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). UPSC recruits the candidates for Indian Administrative Services (IAS), Indian Police Services (IPS) and Central Civil Services including the Indian Foreign Services through this exam. All the ministries and the departments in the union and state governments are headed by the IAS officers. Hence the IAS exam has acquired this much of importance. The topper of the IAS exam has the opportunity to become the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India. It is the highest bureaucratic position one person can have in India.

IAS notification 2020 started the IAS exam process officially. IAS 2020 Notification was issued on February 12 notifying the IAS vacancies 2020, the timeline for the exam, official IAS syllabus, number of attempts and the likes. IAS notification 2020 was released by UPSC as per the UPSC calendar for 2020. UPSC has notified 796 vacancies which are very less as compared to the previous year even when the services related to Indian Railways are also included in the UPSC notification 2020.

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How many services are there in the UPSC IAS Exam 2020?

All India Services

Indian Administrative Services(IAS)
Indian Police Service(IPS)
Indian Forest Services(IFoS) [Prelims Only]

Central Civil Services


Indian Foreign Services(IFS)	Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Group ‘A’	Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’
Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), Group ‘A’	Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’	Indian Revenue Service (I.T.), Group ‘A’
Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Group ‘A’ (Assistant Works Manager, Administration)	Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’	Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’
Indian Railway Traffic Service, Group ‘A’	Indian Railway Accounts Service, Group 'A'	Indian Railway Personnel Service, Group ‘A’
Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force, Group ‘A’	Indian Defence Estates Service, Group ‘A’	Indian Information Service (Junior Grade), Group ‘A’
Indian Trade Service, Group 'A'	Indian Corporate Law Service, Group ‘A’	Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Group ‘B’ (Section Officer’s Grade).
Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service, Group 'B'	Pondicherry Police Service, Group ‘B’	Pondicherry Civil Service, Group 'B'
Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service, Group 'B'

IAS Exam Highlights


Exam Name	Civil Services (IAS) Exam 2020
Conducting Body	Union Public Service Commission
Exam Level	National
UPSC Vacancies	796
Exam Frequency	Once a year
Exam Mode	Offline - Pen and Paper Mode
Exam Stages	Prelims - Mains(Written) - Mains(Interview)
Application Fee(Prelims)	100
Language	Prelims - English and Hindi
No. of Test Cities	Test centres across the nation
Exam Helpdesk No.	011-23098543 / 23385271 / 23381125 / 23098591
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/

IAS Eligibility

Eligibility for IAS is one of the first questions which comes up in the mind of an IAS aspirant. The nationality, the number of attempts, age limit and the educational qualifications are some of the basic eligibility criteria for the IAS exam. All candidates who wish to appear in IAS exam 2020 need to ensure that they meet all the eligibility criteria as mentioned below.

Nationality

For Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), a candidate must be a citizen of India. For all other services, a candidate can either be a citizen of India or

A subject of Nepal/ Bhutan
A Tibetan refugee who came over to India before January 1, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India
A person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India

Note: Candidates who are subjects of Nepal/ Bhutan or Tibetan refugees are not eligible to apply for Indian Foreign Service (IFS).

Age Limit for IAS Exam 2020

Candidates must be minimum 21 years and maximum 32 years of age as on August 1, 2020. This means that candidates must have been born not earlier than August 2, 1988 and not later than August 1, 1999.

There is also age relaxation of some years for reserved category candidates:


Category	Age Relaxation
SC/ ST	5 Years
OBC	3 Years
Defence Services Personnel, disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof	3 Years
Ex-servicemen including commissioned officers and ECOs/SSCOs who have rendered at least five years of military service as on August 1, 2020 and have been released	5 Years
PwD [(a) blindness and low vision; (b) deaf and hard of hearing; (c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy; (d) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness; and (e) multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindness]	10 Years

No age relaxation is provided to the Economically Weaker Sections in the UPSC Civil Services (IAS) Exam 2020.

Educational Qualification for IAS

Candidates must hold a graduation degree in any stream from any university established under the act passed by the Parliament of India or State legislature. Candidates who are in the last year of the graduation and awaiting results are also eligible to apply for IAS preliminary exam. However, such candidates need to submit the proof of passing the requisite exam at the time of applying for the Main exam. The applications for the IAS Main exam are usually released in the month of July/ August.

Note: Candidates who have cleared MBBS or any other medical exam but have not completed their internship, by the time of submission of their Civil Services Main Exam applications, will be provisionally admitted to the exam. However, provisional admission to the exam will be given only if candidates submit along with their application a copy of the certificate from the concerned authority of the university/ institution that they had passed the requisite final professional medical exam, informs the official website.

Physical Standards

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards given in the Civil Services examination rules gazette notification published on February 12, 2020.

Number of Attempts in IAS Exam

All candidates are allowed a maximum of six attempts in the IAS exam. However, it may be noted that the restriction of the number of attempts is not applicable for candidates belonging to the SC/ST category. Also, candidates belonging to OBC and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities categories are allowed a maximum of nine attempts in the exam.

If a candidate appears in any one paper of the IAS Prelims Exam, then it is deemed that he has made an attempt in the IAS Exam.

IAS Exam Dates

Candidates can go through important UPSC IAS exam dates 2020 below:


Event	Dates	Salient Features
IAS Exam 2020 Notification	12-Feb-2020	The UPSC issued the Civil Services (IAS) Exam Notification 2020 for 796 vacancies
Last date to apply for IAS Exam 2020	3-Mar-2020	The IAS online application will be accepted until this date.
IAS Prelims Exam 2020	Postponed	IAS Prelims 2020 Exam postponed due to coronavirus pandemic. New exam dates will be released on May 20.
IAS Prelims 2020 Result	To be announced	The result of the IAS Prelims Exam 2020 will be announced by UPSC.
IAS Main Exam 2020	18-Sep-2020	The IAS Main Exam 2020 will be conducted by UPSC