Half of those who crack civil service exams are engineers: Govt

Nearly half of those who crack the civil services examination are engineering graduates and a large number of them do so by opting for subjects like public administration and sociology, union minister Jitendra Singh said today.

During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, he also said that among the 20 toppers this year, 19 were engineers and one was a doctor.

He was replying to supplementaries after BJP member Subramanian Swamy asked whether the government had received representations to include Ayurveda as an optional subject for civil services examination.

In his written reply, the Minister of State for personnel, public grievances and pensions said the issue was under examination by the government.

He also said that there are 48 optional subjects for the examination and added that Ayurveda not being an optional did not mean that Ayush graduates could not appear for the examination.

Singh (rpt Singh) said doctors and engineers cracked the examination but often chose subjects other than what they had studied during graduation. Not even ten per cent of the doctors opted for medical science as an option, he added.