UPSC increases Civil services intake

Home minister P Chidambaram had in November last year announced the decision to increase the annual batch size of IPS officers from 130 to 150.



THE UNION Public Service Commission (UPSC) has substantially increased the total intake into the Civil Services from 580 in 2009 to 965 in 2010 -- an increase of 385 seats.



The decision to increase the intake of IPS officers was taken on the basis of the recommendation of a one-man committee headed by retired IPS officer Kamal Kumar. The report, submitted on October 15 last year, confirmed the home ministry's earlier concerns that there was grave neglect in determining the number of candidates to be recruited to IPS in the CSE during the four-year period 1999-2002.



According to a recent UPSC release, the decision on increased intake was announced by Commission through its notification for the Civil services examination-2010. In fact, home minister P Chidambaram had in November last year announced the decision to increase the annual batch size of IPS officers from 130 to 150 even the batch of 2009 - which has just taken its CSE (Main) - will see a few more IPS officers when the final result is announced sometime in May. In 2008, UPSC had taken 791 candidates, including 120 in IAS, 26 in IFS and 130 in IPS.



Since the UPSC notification clearly says that the number of vacancies is liable to alteration. The total vacancies (965) to be filled through the 2010 Civil Services Examination (CSE) will be meant for all 24 services, including IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS and others, the police services will see a major jump in intake. The police services include IPS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, and Puducherry services.