UPSC issues new CSE 2026 notification after 50+ typos spark outrage

What was meant to be a routine official release, however, raised eyebrows after the grammatical and spelling errors were spotted in its English version. On Page 2, words such as ‘Examination’ and ‘candidates’ appear as ‘Examinaiton’ and ‘cadidates’, respectively. Similar errors continue on Page 7 with ‘Functinal’ and ‘Bechmark’, on Page 8 with ‘Abbriviations’ and ‘Categoriesof’, and on Page 9 with ‘CHHATISGARH’ and ‘KOLKATTA’.

Pages 17, 18, 20, 24, 27, 28, 30, and 38 also contained errors such as ‘feebe’, ‘anoffer’, ‘ny’, ‘notbe’, ‘Meghalya’, ‘Maithilli’, ‘heminaopia’, ‘draught’ (used instead of drought), and ‘foodgtrains’.

On page 39, fat-soluble was ‘fatsoluble’, hormones as ‘harmones’, and pressure as ‘pressuer’. The errors continued with ‘livestsock’, ‘Pregnency’, ‘post-moretem’, ‘poisioning’, and ‘prenesthetic’.

Aspirants in Pune and across the country vented frustration on how the notification for such a prestigious exam could be such a flawed document. Shruti Velapure, a UPSC aspirant from Pune, said, “If aspirants are judged on perfection, why isn’t UPSC? We lose attempts, marks, and even careers over small mistakes. Seeing basic spelling errors in an official notification feels unfair and disappointing.”

Another candidate, Akshada Surve, remarked, “The notification was already delayed, and when it finally came, it had so many mistakes. We plan months around this document. Such errors create confusion and show a lack of seriousness.”

“We are constantly told UPSC allows no margin for error. But when the commission itself overlooks basic spelling mistakes, it feels like different rules apply. Aspirants expect accountability, not excuses,” added Shrikant Jare, UPSC aspirant.

Another aspirant observed that the errors were inexplicable when spell check and grammar tools are easily available.

Slew of errors

Here’s a list of a few words that were misspelt in the UPSC notification released on February 4:

* Plio-Pleistocene-Plio-preleistocene

* Context-contex

* Anthropology-Anthroplogy

* Significance-Significane

* Magnoliaceae-Mangnoliaceae

* Chemotaxonomy-chemotaxomomy

* Polyembryony-Polyembroyony

* Cytoskeleton-Cytoskelaton

* Phloem-pholem

* Phytoremediation-phytoreme-diation

* Energy-enercy

* Method-mathod

* Post mortem-post poretem

* Influence-Influences

* Field test-filed test

* Canal-cannal

* Distributary-distributory

* Employees-Emplyees

* Economical-Ecomomical

* Perception-Pereception

* Superheterodyne-Superhetrodyne

(Vaishnavi Gujar is an intern with The Indian Express)