About 4.65 lakh candidates today appeared for civil services preliminary examination across the country.
"There were no untoward incidents reported from any of the centre in the country," Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Secretary Ashim Khurana told PTI.
A total of 4,65,882 candidates took the civil services preliminary examination this year as compared to 4,51,602 examinees last year, an increase by 14,280, he said.
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As against a record number of 9,45,908 candidates who have applied for the exam, 6,81,549 of them had downloaded their e-admit card, Khurana said.
Out of these candidates, 4,65,882 candidates took the examination, which is about 49 per cent of the total candidates who had applied, he said.
The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages-- preliminary, main and interview --to select candidates for prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.
The preliminary examination consists of two papers-- Paper I and Paper II of two hours duration each. The first paper began at 9:30 AM and second started at 2:30 PM.
There were 2,186 venues in 71 centres (or cities) across the country.
"At Delhi centre, 70,642 candidates took the examination as against 1,17,312 who have registered for Delhi as their centre," said Khurana, a 1983 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
In order to facilitate the visually impaired candidates, the Commission has increased the number of venues (cities) to 72 in 71 centres as compared to eight venues in seven cities in 2014, he said.
There were 2,137 venues in 59 centres for 2014 prelims exam.
