Union Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, on August 4 informed that there are 1,472 vacancies in Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 864 vacancies in the Indian Police Service (IPS) in various states. The vacancies were reported by him as calculated on January 1, 2022.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister informed that to ensure optimal intake of directly recruited IAS officers, the government has increased their annual intake to 180 through the Civil Services Examination (CSE) on the basis of the recommendations of the Baswan Committee.

The committee had also recommended that any number above 180 would "compromise quality", exceed the LBSNAA's (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, which is India's premier training institute for civil servants) capacity and lead to distortion in the career pyramid of IAS officers, particularly for senior posts in the government of India, Singh additionally said.

"As on January 1, 2022, there are 1,472 vacancies in IAS and 864 vacancies in IPS in various states. Occurrence and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process. It is the endeavour of the central government to fill up the vacancies in the cadres. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts civil services examination for filling up of vacancies on direct recruitment basis in the category of IAS and IPS every year," Jitendra Singh said.

"Regarding IPS officers, the intake of IPS through CSE has been increased to 200. Further, to fill up vacancies in the promotion quota, selection committee meetings are held by the UPSC with the state governments," he added.

It may be noted that the Baswan Committee constituted of four members — BS Baswan (Former Director, IIPA) (what is IIPA), RK Barik (Professor, IIPA), Akber Ali (Research Officer, IIPA) and Pankaj Kumar Singh (Research Officer, IIPA). The committee's report suggested changes in the exam pattern, number of intakes and age limit. The government considered this report in 2017.