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Civil Services Mains 2020 Results: In or Out ? Way ahead, gratitude and Pain

As per credible insider accounts, over 40% of UPSC Bhawan staff has tested positive for Covid recently, including some JS and above officers. News wrt to Members is unclear though several came in contact with those infected and are in possible isolation. A section officer, multiple wing and deptt staff are hospitalised and there is news of few unfortunate casualty as well. It's sad, the state of affairs in these bodies and ministries. Min of I&B has lost more than 5 members to this virus in past 2 days, including very senior IIS officers. Same is situation in MoH&FW, even on the Admin side and in several other Central Ministries. People at top have failed us. It's each citizen for one another. In all likelihood, UPSC is expected to release a new calendar before/around 20th May. Don't go by this piece of information alone, keep your preparation as geared as possible. Even if it doesn't get delayed much, you should be able to shift gears quick. 

As of now, Please take good care of yourself, esp the ones in Delhi considering the serious positivity rate and "R" reaching dangerous levels.

Follow the 3 Ws rigorously - Wear a mask, Watch your distance and Wash your hands. 

Take care everyone. We're all in this together

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Forwarded message:

Notice by UPSC states that the new dates will be intimated with at least a 15 day gap between the new notice and the resumption of interviews.

What we can infer from this :

  1. CSE results will be delayed for 2020. They were to be out after 18th of June, 2021 and before 27th of June,2021 (initially). Now, with the postponement of the CSE interviews, the results will be delayed as they can only be out when the last interview has concluded.
  2. As the CSE 2020 results get delayed, the chances of CSE prelims 2021 getting delayed have increased.
  3. The candidates who will get IAS and IFS, after the results( & of course, interviews) of CSE 2020, are automatically ineligible to appear in CSE Prelims 2021 as per UPSC’s standard rule.
  4. So, the CSE Prelims 2021 can’t be conducted before the results of CSE 2020 are out.
  5. Can UPSC go ahead with CSE Prelims 2021 without the results of CSE 2020? Highly unlikely as of now. Reasons :

a) Would be untenable and burdensome to first finalize the cutoff and release CSE Prelims selected candidates of 2021 or first eliminate the IAS/IFS candidates of CSE 2020 from that list and then go ahead with the cutoffs.

b) With a 15-day gap between the announcement of dates and the next date of interviews, the chances of CSE results being out are more in the 2nd half of July (that too at the earliest). It can get delayed further as Covid is slated to peak by somewhere in mid-May. So, it becomes even more untenable to manage both the processes for CSE 2020 & 2021 going simultaneously.

c) No past precedence of UPSC conducting CSE Prelims before previous year’s results.( 1992 being exception due to labour unrest)

Conclusion : These are all probabilities and speculative analysis, based on what we know as of now. We can speculate as much as we want and as close to reality as possible, but don’t forget UPSC is the boss here. Ultimate decision lies with the members of UPSC. So, keep the preparations on and be prepared with both the eventualities of the binary

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Further to earlier post, about over 40% Dholpur House staff being infected, the same source informed that yesterday a meeting was held virtually to decide on the upcoming schedule. As meeting was virtual, only 2-3 participants were present at Dholpur House, with majority of staff still off limits and several in isolation/ quarantine.

Silence was observed for recently passed away section staff and admin staff, including for Shri Birendra Nath Nishad, Section Officer, DoPT, liaisoning as important point of contact between UPSC and DoPT since last Nov.

Few (among many) of the actionables decided :

1. Indefinite defferment of CMS, in light of GoI leveraging several working, final year grads. 

2. Opinions sought from PMO for way ahead, DoPT for current recruitment cycle & Law Ministry for legal questions.

3. No particular discussion on CSE(P) per se, but definite decision taken on realigning the whole calendar for 2021. As reverts from different ministry and PMO comes back, a new calendar will be issued.

4. As of now, UPSC is more concerned with safety of its staff and members.
And completing the ongoing examinations, especially the interview by Aug-Sept 2020.

5. Before conduct of any exam, and esp ones like CDS, CSE(P); a whole process is initiated almost 45-60 days in advance, for selection of centres, allotment of roll numbers, staff requistioning from State Govts etc. 
As NDA was on 18th Apr, these work for it started in Mar 1st week. Hence, despite rises and almost none lock down back then, exam could be conducted. 

Right now, none of process for CSE(P) has been started, and all state govts are in limbo, with regards lockdown and resources. Therefore, exam for Prelims 2021 cannot be held before end August, considering peak around end may/ early june.

PS: " Please save this message and if UPSC does any better I must quit this space" !
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@sjerngal I think Vision and Insights have lost the plot, they play with small facts in question a lot. Those micro stuff, like 2.2 in place of 2.1; substituting unimportant names/dates. They make us over-suspicious in attempting and hence majority lose out due to overthinking and overdoing these tests. Forum and Shankar have really good FLTs this year, AROUND UPSC way of framing and twisting, so it is better to judge via these then those run of mill FLTs.


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