The first paper, paper-I, essay, of UPSC Civil Services IAS Mains 2019 was today. It was conducted from 9 am to 12 noon. It is one of the seven papers whose marks will be counted for merit.
UPSC mains essay paper 2019 had two sections, A and B. Each section had four essay topics. Candidates had to pick one topic from each section and write an essay on the same in 1000-2000 words. Each essay would then be marked out of 125.
The first essay topic in section A was “Wisdom finds truth”. Second was “Values are not what humanity is, but what humanity ought to be”. Third was “Best for an individual is not necessarily best for the society”. The fourth topic was “Courage to accept and dedication to improve are two keys to success”.
Then in section B, the first topic was “South Asian societies are woven not around the state, but around their plural cultures and plural identities”. The second topic was “Neglect of primary health care and education in India are reasons for its backwardness”. After that the third topic was “Biased media is a real threat to Indian democracy”. Fourth topic in the IAS mains essay paper was “Rise of artificial intelligence: the threat of jobless future or better job opportunities through reskilling and upskilling”.
Each of the topics were given in Hindi as well as English.
Only 11,845 candidates had qualified for the UPSC IAS Mains 2019, and had the first paper of mains today. Now starting tomorrow, there will be two papers on each day. Forenoon session papers will be from 9 am to 12 noon, and afternoon session exam will be from 2 pm to 5 pm.
Paper-II of general studies I, Paper III of general studies II will be held tomorrow. On the day after, paper IV of general studies III and paper V of general studies IV shall take place.
Then on the next weekend that is on September 28, paper A Indian language, and paper B English will be conducted. On September 29, paper VI optional paper I and paper VII optional paper II will be held.
In UPSC mains exam papers I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII are of 250 marks each. Whereas paper A and paper B are of 300 marks each. Only papers I to VII are counted for merit. Thus sub-total marks in written test is 1750. Those who qualify mains are called for interview of 275 marks. Thus the total score on the basis of which candidates are selected is 2025.
The cut off marks in written exam were 774, 732, 719, 719 respectively for general, OBC, SC, ST last time. Out of 2025, the respective cut offs were 982, 938, 912, 912. In 2018, when these cut offs were applicable, the category wise vacancies were respectively 414, 209, 128, 61; that is a total of 812 vacancies. This time there are 896 vacancies.
UPSC is expected to declare the result of civil services IAS mains exam in December, at upsc.gov.in.
