English Out Of UPSC

Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Jitendra Singh, announced in the Parliament today that the marks obtained in English would not be included for gradation or preparing the merit list in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)exam. This comes a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting to resolve the controversy over the exam.

He also said that one more attempt would be allowed in 2015 for civil services aspirants who had appeared in 2011.

The UPSC aspirants from non-English backgrounds have been demanding the aptitude test (CSAT-II) to be scrapped as, according to them, it is discriminatory to those from Hindi-speaking states.

The CSAT-II paper in the UPSC preliminary exam carries questions on English comprehension and communication skills, besides logical reasoning, analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving skills.