UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE) 2025 Updates: Check eligibility, attempts, steps to apply at upsc.gov.in

The Jamia Millia Islamia RCA provides free residential coaching to 200 candidates belonging to minorities, SCs, STs and women (of all communities) for the preparation of civil services (preliminary-cum-main). Scholarships to 20 per cent at Rs 2000 per month are also provided on means-cum-merit basis. RCA conducts entrance examinations for coaching in 12 cities across the country. The application process for admission to the current session is now open.

Jamia Hamdard residential coaching academy, New Delhi

The academy provides free coaching to civil services exam aspirants. This facility is exclusively open for candidates belonging to minority, scheduled caste, and scheduled tribe categories. Women candidates are also eligible to avail this opportunity. The admission is through a written test, and only the shortlisted candidates are called for the test. Upon successfully qualifying for the test, the candidates need to appear for an interview. Only candidates with a completed graduation degree are eligible to apply.

Aligarh Muslim university residential coaching academy, Aligarh

AMU’s merit-cum-means freeship programme provides free coaching and residential facilities to 100 aspiring students every year. The programme is open for minorities, SCs, STs and women candidates only. The selection process is done through a merit-based test and family income less than eight lakh per annum. AMU provides library access, separate accommodation to men and women, coaching facilities for all three stages of the civil service exam. Eligible candidates can check the official website of AMU for the registration process.

Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh

Dr Ambedkar Centre of Excellence launched at BHU in 2022 provides free civil services coaching to SC students. The institute has a capacity of 100 seats for coaching and over 33 per cent of total sanctioned seats are preferably given to eligible female candidates of the scheduled caste (SC) category. To avail the free coaching services, candidates need to pass an entrance test.

IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) offers free UPSC coaching to candidates from the Scheduled Caste (SC). The coaching is offered under the aegis of the newly-established Dr Ambedkar Centre for Excellence (DACE). Admission is done through the Common Entrance Test (CET), conducted by the University. This entrance exam will have 100 objective type questions based on general knowledge, language skills, reasoning abilities and general aptitude.

The Delhi High Court today sought the stand of Jamia Millia Islamia on a PIL over admissions of OBC (non-creamy layer) students in its residential coaching academy meant for civil services aspirants. The university provides free coaching to UPSC aspirants.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued notice to Jamia Millia Islamia and University Grants Commission (UGC) on the PIL by Satyam Singh, a law graduate.

Referring to the UGC guidelines, Singh said Jamia couldn't restrict free coaching only to female students and those from SC/ST and minority communities as it was under the obligation to extend the benefit to both OBC (non-creamy layer) and economically weaker sections (EWS).

When the court pointed out there was no provision in the UGC guidelines for the EWS category, the petitioner restricted his relief only to OBC (non-creamy layer).

The court however asked the petitioner to inform if a university established by a statute was bound to follow the UGC mandate and said, "Issue notice to the respondents." The court had questioned the petitioner on the "right" to seek admission in the coaching academy as an OBC (non-creamy layer) candidate.

"You are virtually asking us to reframe a policy. Admission is not to regular courses but a coaching centre. It is for authorities to provide for reservation. You are asking us to create a right," it said.

In the petition filed through advocates Akash Vajpai, Ayush Saxsena Puru Mudgal, the petitioner said UGC gave financial support to four Central universities, including JMI, and therefore it was under an obligation not to discriminate among the underprivileged students.

The petition said the current admission policy for the residential coaching academy was arbitrary and discriminatory as it left out a category of students who deserved admissions.

"The objective of the residential coaching academy is to provide equal opportunities to all sections of society for equitable growth by providing coaching programme to the underprivileged students, with hostel facilities on paying nominal fee for entry into central/state government jobs but surprisingly OBC (non-creamy layer) and EWS students to whom even UPSC provides 25% and 10% reservation in the examination because of their limited financial resources, have been excluded," the PIL said.

The matter would be heard next on February 12.

During the 2022 UPSC CSE exam, 75 General, 45 OBC, 29 SC and 13 ST appointments were made in the IAS. Similarly, 83 General, 53 OBC, 31 SC and 13 ST were appointed in the IPS during the same period. A total of 43 General, 51 OBC, 22 SC and 11 ST appointments were made in the IFS during CSE 2024. Read

A total of 1,316 and 586 posts of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are vacant, Union Minister Jitendra Singh informed Rajya Sabha on December 12, 2024

UPSC aspirants are required to apply online. The official website is upsconline.gov.in. It is important for the applicant to register himself/herself first at One Time Registration (OTR) platform, available on the Commission’s website.

In 2011, the UPSC introduced the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) in the preliminary exam to test the analytical skills, reasoning ability and aptitude of the UPSC aspirants. However, this decision was criticised by the non-English medium candidates as the CSAT included questions on English comprehension.

The Nigvekar committee, which was appointed to examine the changes in the examination pattern, also said that the CSAT exam pattern gave more advantages to English aspirants.

To qualify, candidates must secure a minimum of 33% marks in the CSAT paper.

Over the years, the number of students taking exams in Hindi and other regional languages has been declining. (As per data available in the UPSC’s annual reports). In 2021, 470 candidates appeared from the Hindi medium while there were 2433 aspirants who took the exam in 2015. Read

Over the years, engineers have been dominating the UPSC CSE results. “Over 70 per cent of the recruits in the civil service by UPSC nowadays are from technical streams. Every year, hundreds of technocrats are thus being lost, who are likely to work in other specific areas which is also a requirement for the nation,” a parliamentary report stated. The report also highlighted a steady decline in the number of candidates from the humanities stream opting for civil service between 2011 and 2020. Read

The age limit for the general category candidate is 21 years, and the candidate should not have attained the age of 32 as of August 1 of the year of applying.

The UPSC CSE notification will be released on upsc.gov.in. The candidates have time till February 11 to register for the exam.

UPSC had notified a total of 1,056 vacancies for CSE and 150 for IFoS this year. The CSE 2024 prelims exam is set to be held on May 25 and the last date to register is February 11. Last year, the prelims was held on May 26 and the main was held on September 20