New Delhi: A report by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) revealed that engineering graduates accounted for more than 63 percent of the candidates who qualified for the Civil Services Examination (Mains) in the last five years. The report was presented by Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is conducted by the UPSC every year to select candidates for various administrative services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and others. The examination consists of three stages: Preliminary, Mains, and Interview.
According to the report, a total of 4,371 candidates were recommended by the UPSC for the CSE (Mains) during 2017-21. Out of these, 2,783 (63.7 percent) had engineering degrees, followed by 1,033 (23.6 percent) with humanities degrees, 315 (7.2 percent) with science degrees, and 240 (5.5 percent) with medical degrees.
The report also showed that candidates with higher degrees in humanities outnumbered those with higher degrees in engineering. Out of the 597 candidates who had postgraduate degrees in humanities, 243 (40.7 percent) cleared the examination, while out of the 243 candidates who had postgraduate degrees in engineering, only 97 (39.9 percent) made it through.
The gender-wise distribution of the candidates revealed that male candidates were more successful than female candidates in the CSE (Mains). Out of the 3,265 male candidates (74.6 percent) who were recommended by the UPSC, 2,099 (64.3 percent) had engineering degrees, while out of the 1,106 female candidates (25.4 percent) who were recommended, 684 (61.8 percent) had engineering degrees.
The report also provided information on the language preferences and optional subjects of the candidates. The candidates could choose to write their papers in any of the 22 scheduled languages or English. The report showed that most of the candidates opted for English (3,457), followed by Hindi (647), Tamil (48), Telugu (38) and Kannada (35). The least preferred languages were Dogri (1), Maithili (1), Sanskrit (1), and Urdu (1).
The candidates could also choose one optional subject out of 48 subjects for the CSE (Mains). The report showed that the most popular optional subjects were political science and international relations (1,015), sociology (711), anthropology (403), and geography (393). The least popular optional subjects were animal husbandry and veterinary science (3), medical science (3), statistics (3) and zoology (3).
The following table summarizes the key findings of the report:
| Category | Number of candidates | Percentage | Engineering graduates | Humanities graduates | Science graduates | Medical graduates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 4,371 | 100 | 2,783 | 1,033 | 315 | 240 |
| Male | 3,265 | 74.6 | 2,099 | 766 | 249 | 151 |
| Female | 1,106 | 25.4 | 684 | 267 | 66 | 89 |
| Postgraduates | 840 | 19.2 | 97 | 597 | 83 | 63 |
The report highlighted the dominance of engineering graduates in the CSE (Mains) and the diversity of language and subject choices among the candidates. It also indicated the need for more representation of female candidates and candidates from other streams in the civil services.
