'Last attempt' candidates who missed UPSC exams due to Covid get another chance

Only candidates who appeared for CSE-2020 as their last attempt and are not age-barred from taking the 2021 exam have will be allowed to sit the test.

Moneycontrol News

February 05, 2021 / 16:45 IST

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Candidates who could not take the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam 2020 in their final attempt due to COVID-19 outbreak will be allowed another shot at the test, the Centre told the Supreme Court on February 5.

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea filed by civil services aspirant Rachna Singh, seeking another chance to for candidates who lost their last attempt to take the preliminary exams held in October 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Supreme Court had told the Centre and the Union Public Service Commission in September to grant another such chance another chance.

The Civil Services Preliminary exams 2020 were held on October 4, 2020. The UPSC CSE prelims were to be held in May 2020 but had to be put off due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Here are the conditions that the Centre has laid down while granting UPSC candidates another chance to sit the exam:

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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