Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has conveyed via a press release that the Civil Services exam is hereby postponed. The IAS prelims exam which was supposed to be held on June 27, 2021, will now be held on October 10, 2021.
The information was conveyed through press release issued through PIB. As well as the same was published as a notification on upsc.gov.in. The notice may be expected in print in leading dailies tomorrow.


The notice further confirmed that the postponement decision was taken in light of the prevailing conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, due to similar conditions in the country, UPSC was compelled to postpone the Civil Services exam from May 31 to October 04.
Every year, UPSC conducts Civil Services exams in three stages – preliminary, mains and interview. This process is meant to recruit individuals to the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), Indian Foreign Services (IFS) and, Indian Police Services (IPS), etc.
With respect to 2020 recruitment, the written examination has been successfully conducted. Earlier, the Commission had planned to conduct the interviews for the Civil Services Examination 2020 from April 26, 2021 to June 18, 2021. However, the interview round is put on hold due to the rising number of coronavirus cases. Fresh dates shall be intimated in due course of time once the situation stabilises in the country.
This year, UPSC in its advertisement for Civil Services Examination 2021, has provided a total of 712 vacancies. These seats also include 22 vacancies for candidates belonging to disability category. To get selected, it is mandatory to clear all three rounds of section namely, preliminary, mains and interview or personality test rounds.
Civil Services Preliminary 2021 examination shall comprise of two papers – General Studies I and General Studies II. Each paper shall be of 200 marks and contain objective-type multiple-choice questions (MCQs). This exam shall act as a screening test which the candidates have to qualify to appear for the Mains exams. However, the prelims marks shall not be considered by authorities while curating the final merit list.
UPSC has also postponed other exams due to the impending circumstances. Though it is worthy to note that the NDA 2021 exam was held at the start of peak of the pandemic. Authorities issued a notice announcing the postponement of the enforcement officers’ selection examination 2021. This exam was to be conducted on May 09, 2021, for recruiting officers to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. The official notice further stated that the revised schedule for tests and interviews shall be notified 15 days prior to the concerned students.
The Combined Medical Services exam 2021 registration process was planned to begin on May 05, 2021. However, UPSC has deferred the registration process to a later date. Again, the revised schedule shall be notified to candidates as and when decided. Until then, candidates were advised to visit the official website upsc.gov.in for important updates.