Lowest number of Candidates recruited by UPSC in 2021-2022, Government data

In the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Union Minister Jitendra Singh produced the data of the candidates selected by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) in 2020–2021 and 2021–2022.

As per the reports, out of 1,59,615 candidates, 8,913 were recruited by UPSC, 97,914 by SSC and 53,788 by IBPS. In submitting the report to the upper house, Singh mentioned that 96,601 were recruited in 2020–2021, out of which 4,214 were recruited by UPSC: 68,819 by SSC and 23,496 by IBPS. He further added the data from 2021–2022, where 63,014 candidates were recruited . UPSC recruited 4,699, SSC recruited 29,023, and IBPS recruited 29,292.

He emphasised the continuity of the recruitment process, which wasn’t hindered even during the Pandemic  COVID-19. All the safety measures and the protocols issued for COVID-19 were taken care of while conducting the examinations by UPSC, SSC, and IBPS, declared the minister.

He also addressed the issue raised by the aspirants of age relaxation and increasing the number of attempts for the Civil Service examination due to the pandemic. He said, “The matter was also brought before the Supreme Court of India via Writ Petitions by CSE aspirants.”

Referring to the Supreme Court’s judgement, he said, “As regards examinations to be conducted by SSC for the examinations being advertised in the year 2022, the SSC has decided to fix a crucial date for determining age as on January 1 this year.”

He explained that the apex court did not find it practicable to change the current provisions of the examination. He further added , “In the normal course, the crucial date for determining age for these examinations would have been August 1, 2022, or January 1, 2023, depending on the schedule of conduct of Tier-II Examination. As regards the Banking Sector, since each year exams were conducted, the issue of age relaxation is not applicable.”