400 Tamil Nadu candidates clear IAS prelims

Chennai: More than 400 civil service aspirants from Tamil Nadu have cleared the preliminary exams conducted by the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) during August this year.

Founder-director of Ganesh's IAS academy S. Ganesa Subramanian said about 12 lakh aspirants registered to take up the preliminary examination this year. Of these, Tamil Nadu has around 40,000 students.

"As the UPSC made the application process online, several uninterested students also registered and there can be duplication of registration - so we can eliminate 10 per cent of the applications," he said.

Pointing out that the UPSC had fixed a higher cut-off to select 13,025 applicants across the country, Mr Subramanian said 1,300 posts lie vacant in the Union government this year for which 13,025 students were short-listed. However, last year, UPSC selected 16,000 candidates for 1,000 posts.

Last year, about 650 Tamil Nadu students cracked the preliminary exams and the number dipped to 400 this year. A total of 227 applicants from Manidha Naeyam IAS & IPS Free Coaching Centre and 85 candidates from Ganesh's IAS academy are among those who passed the preliminary exam this year.