The Union government has cut down the upper age limit for Union Public Service Commission [UPSC] aspirants and they are likely to come effective from 2015. The number of attempts were also been reduced and they are applicable as per the categories awarded.

According to a government notification, the upper age limit for general category will be 26 years, down from 30, for Other Backward Classes [OBCs] 28 from 33 and for Scheduled Caste [SC] and Scheduled Tribe [ST] categories it will be down to 29 from 35.  The number of attempts for general category is three, for OBCs is fixed at five and for SCs and STs at six attempts each.

However, Department of Personnel and Training [DoPT] said it did not receive any directive or notification from the government regarding this. This move came from the government after a number of former civil servants have been asking for lowering the upper age limit as they believed that at 35 years of age, one could not learn much and there was hardly any scope to achieve higher ranking.

(AW: Vamshi)