Rajasthan replaces Bihar as second-biggest contributor to IAS pool

Women constitute a third of batch strength, fewer engineers, doctors and CAs clearing the prestigious exam

Traditional wisdom has it that most of India's civil servants are either from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. But this perception may not hold for long with candidates like Tina Dabi of Delhi and Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan of Jammu and Kashmir bagging the first and the second ranks in the civil services examination (CSE) 2015.

In fact, in the CSE 2014, three out of the top four Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers were from Delhi. The topper was Delhi's Ira Singhal. The person who came second belonged to Kerala. In CSE 2013, the second rank holder was from the national capital.

The CSE is held every year to fill vacancies in the IAS, Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and other Group A and Group B services. IAS is the most sought after as its officers sit at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid.

The CSE exam is held in two parts - preliminary and mains - followed by an interview. The successful candidates are allotted their batch next year, meaning those who took the CSE 2015 were allotted the 2016 batch. A record 1 million students appeared for this exam in 2015.

India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh continues to be the biggest contributor to the IAS pool with 118 successful candidates in the past five years. Tamil Nadu continued its stellar performance, producing 18 IAS officers on an average every year. Its total score between 2011 and 2015 was 90.

The state that sprung a surprise was Rajasthan. Its contribution was 97 IAS officers, second only to Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan is among the bottom three states in terms of literacy and is better known for its private institutes imparting coaching to students for engineering and medical entrance exams.

Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are the other two big contributors with 68 and 61 IAS officers, respectively, in the past five years. Though there is no set pattern for Bihar, the number of IAS officers from Andhra Pradesh has halved since 2011.

Data analysed by Business Standard suggest the number of successful candidates whose domicile or hometown was Delhi saw a sharp increase in the five years beginning 2011. If Delhi contributed three officers to the IAS batch of 2011, it produced four in 2012 and seven in 2013.

In 2014 and 2015, the number went up to 16 and 19, respectively. Data was unavailable for the 2016 batch.

"More Delhi students are getting into the civil services because of an increase in awareness. The success of Delhi students in the last couple of years has also contributed to more students taking up the CSE," says AK Mishra, managing director of Chanakya IAS Academy, which provides coaching for these exams.

Mishra says his institute has registered a 20 per cent increase in students and it is coaching 10 batches of 100 students each in the national capital.

Delhi's success assumes significance because of its small population relative to states like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal. If Delhi produced 49 IAS officers in the past five years, the contributions from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal were 17, 37 and 7, respectively. Maharashtra, Kerala and Haryana contributed 58, 54, and 51 officers, respectively, in the past five years.

The CSE results depict two new trends. First, the number of women qualifying is increasing each year and they now constitute one-third of the total batch strength. Second, there is a decline in the number of engineering and medical graduates clearing the exams.

Of the 180 IAS officers in the 2015 batch, 159 were graduates and 15 held engineering degrees. Four were post graduates. This is in contrast with the 2011 batch, when of the 148 IAS officers, only 45 were graduates. The rest were engineers (43), post graduates (44) and professionals (16), mainly doctors and a few chartered accountants.