UPSC DELAYS PRELIMS 2014 NOTIFICATION

17 May 2014

The notification for Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2014 was to be released today, that is, 17th May 2014 as informed in this post on IAS 2014 notification. However UPSC has deferred the notifcation without indicating when the Prelims exam will be notified. Although, the date of Prelims remains the same on 24th August 2014. Below is a screenshot of the notification that can be found here.

Possible Reasons for Delay of 2014 Prelims Notification

The first reason I can think of is the new government at the Centre. So there could be changes in the number of vacancies. It is a fact that the average vacancies during 1999 to 2004 when the NDA was in power earlier was much lower than before and after this period. So it is possible that the new govt. might want to reduce the number of vacancies.
The second reason could be the decision to allow two additional attempts to civil services aspirants. As you might know, this decision was announced by Ministry of Personnel in a short message without giving any details. These details were awaited in the notification that was to be released today. Also it could be that UPSC was not happy with these changes and it seemed to be taken by the ministry unilaterally without consulting the UPSC. So as the UPA regime is gone, the new government may well undo the changes and we will be back with 4 attempts as earlier.

It could also be that both the above reasons are valid. So let’s wait and watch. What do you feel about the delay in notifying the Civil Services Exam?