Tamil Nadu witnesses nearly 50 per cent drop in UPSC exam results this year
Chennai: One of the lowest performances in the last 10 years, only 42 candidates from Tamil Nadu were selected for civil services including IAS and IPS this year and the results are down by 46 per cent compared to last year. Union Public Service Commission declared the civil service final results on Friday. Of 990 posts, 42 students got selected whereas 78 candidates from the state featured in the selection list last year.
The experts attributed the poor performance to two reasons - tough evaluation of regional language papers and the cut in the number of vacancies. V. Keerthi Vasan from Dharmapuri is the topper in the state with 29th all India rank and he was followed by Madhubalan L. from Chennai who has secured 71st rank.
“Tamil Nadu has performed badly due to the tough evaluation of regional papers. The results for all the regional languages including Tamil and Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada were poor this year,” D. Shankar, director, Shankar IAS Academy.
Usually, around 50 per cent of seats will be taken by the students from these four southern states. But this year, the number of students selected has come down to 20 to 25 per cent. “Around 15 to 20 candidates will get selected from regional languages. Evaluation seems to be tougher compared to last year and the fewer vacancies also another important reason for the reduction in the results,”he said. The number of vacancies is down from 1,200 to 990 this year.
Israel Jebasingh IAS, founder and director, Officers IAS Academy, said the results from Tamil Nadu have come down due to the poor results in Tamil literature paper. “Very few candidates who selected Tamil literature were able to clear the exam. But, students who took other optional papers like anthropology, public affairs have done well as usual,” he said.
V. Keerthi Vasan who got all India 29th rank took political science and international relations as the optional paper. A native of Dharmapuri district, he did his B.Tech in NIT Tiruchi and preparing for civil services from 2016 in Delhi.”I want to be a role model for the youth and want to motivate them in policy formulation and implementation. I believe they are the future of the country. I also want to work in health and education,” Keerthi Vasan said.
He further said he is confident of clearing the exam, but did not expect the high rank. His father is R. Venkatesh Babu and mother V. Deepa is doing silk saree business.Madhubalan, the second topper from the state, is also an engineering graduate.
He studied electronic and communication engineering from Easwari Engineering College in Ramapuram. He took Tamil literature as the optional paper. “I prepared well and confident of clearing it,” he said when asked about the tough evaluation this year. “I want to be neutral and honest in my work. I want to focus on women's education and sanitation,” Madhubalan said. His father Lingam C. is a retired accountant and mother is Malarvizhi.
