UPSC IES / ISS 2026: Notification, Vacancy, Syllabus, Cut Off, Result

UPSC IES / ISS (Indian Economic Service and Indian Statistical Service Examination) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to recruit for Junior Time Scale posts in the Indian Economic Service and the Indian Statistical Service, placed across NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and other economic and statistical wings of the Government of India. The IES / ISS 2026 notification declares 44 — 28 in the Indian Statistical Service and 16 in the Indian Economic Service.

UPSC IES / ISS selection process

1. Written Examination (six papers, descriptive and objective)
2. Viva Voce / Interview

UPSC IES / ISS selection runs through the stages below, each of which must be cleared in sequence.

1. Written Examination (six papers, descriptive and objective)
2. Viva Voce / Interview

Exam pattern by stage

Document verification

UPSC verifies eligibility against original documents only after a candidate has qualified for the Interview or Personality Test. Until that point, admission to every stage is purely provisional — the issue of an e-Admit Card does not mean your candidature has been cleared. A candidate can therefore sit and clear a paper and still be found ineligible later.

Final merit

Merit is prepared from the marks that count for this examination, and posts are allotted by merit-cum-preference against the confirmed vacancies. Ties are broken by rules published by the Commission — typically the marks in the compulsory papers, and where those are equal, seniority in age.

UPSC IES / ISS exam pattern

Total marks

Written 1000 marks + Viva Voce 200 marks = 1200 marks.

Negative marking

Yes — one third of the marks is deducted for each wrong answer in the objective papers. The subject papers are descriptive and carry no negative marking.

UPSC does not normalise marks

This is the single most common misconception carried over from SSC. UPSC conducts each paper in one sitting with one question paper, so there are no shifts to equate and no normalisation formula. A published UPSC cut off is a raw mark you could actually have scored on the paper — which is why the figures are clean numbers rather than five-decimal scores.

What is next for UPSC IES / ISS

The IES / ISS 2026 examination was held from 19 to 21 June 2026 and the written result was declared on 4 August 2026; Personality Tests (interviews) begin on 2 November 2026, as per UPSC's notice of 15 October 2026. The 2027 notification is due on 10 February 2027.

IES / ISS Eligibility

UPSC IES / ISS eligibility requires the following. For the Indian Economic Service, a Post-Graduate degree in Economics, Applied Economics, Business Economics or Econometrics. For the Indian Statistical Service, a Bachelor's degree with Statistics as a subject, or a Post-Graduate degree in Statistics, Mathematical Statistics or Applied Statistics. The age limit is 21 to 30 years as on 1 August 2026 — born between 2 August 1996 and 1 August 2005.

Educational qualification

For the Indian Economic Service, a Post-Graduate degree in Economics, Applied Economics, Business Economics or Econometrics. For the Indian Statistical Service, a Bachelor's degree with Statistics as a subject, or a Post-Graduate degree in Statistics, Mathematical Statistics or Applied Statistics.

Age limit

21 to 30 years as on 1 August 2026 — born between 2 August 1996 and 1 August 2005.

Age relaxation

A candidate who belongs to SC, ST or OBC and is also an Ex-serviceman or PwBD candidate is eligible for cumulative relaxation under both heads.

Number of attempts

No limit on attempts within the age window.

Nationality

A candidate must be a citizen of India, or fall within the other categories of nationality set out in the Examination Notice — which for most services include subjects of Nepal and Bhutan, Tibetan refugees who came to India before 1 January 1962, and persons of Indian origin who have migrated from certain countries with the intention of permanently settling in India.

IES / ISS Application Form

UPSC IES / ISS applications are submitted online at upsconline.nic.in. Since 2025 UPSC uses a four-module portal, and three of those modules can be completed before the notification is even published.

Important dates — IES / ISS 2026

Application fee

₹200. Female, SC, ST and PwBD candidates are exempted.

The URN and the Common Application Form

UPSC issues every candidate a Universal Registration Number (URN), which is registered once in a lifetime and is common to every UPSC examination. The Application Number, by contrast, is generated per examination and changes each time. Keep both — UPSC asks for them in any future correspondence.

How to apply

1. Create an account on upsconline.nic.in.
2. Complete Universal Registration to generate your URN. This can be done at any time — you do not need to wait for a notification.
3. Fill the Common Application Form (CAF) with your personal details, qualification and category, and upload the supporting documents. A live photograph must be captured at this stage in addition to the uploaded photo.
4. Open the examination-specific module during the application window, choose your centre and options, pay the fee and submit.

UPSC advises using an Aadhaar card as the identity document, because it verifies automatically and avoids manual checks later.

Correcting your application

UPSC provides a one-time facility to update the URN profile. Changes made to the profile do not flow back into applications already submitted — they apply only to applications made after the profile is re-locked. This catches people out every cycle.

IES / ISS Vacancy

UPSC IES / ISS vacancies for IES / ISS 2026: 44 — 28 in the Indian Statistical Service and 16 in the Indian Economic Service.

Posts covered

Junior Time Scale posts in the Indian Economic Service and the Indian Statistical Service, placed across NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and other economic and statistical wings of the Government of India.

Pay

Pay Level 10 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix (₹56,100 basic) at Junior Time Scale.

How UPSC announces vacancies

UPSC publishes an approximate vacancy figure in the Examination Notice and states in the same paragraph that the number is liable to alteration. The final figure is settled once the cadre controlling authorities confirm their requirements, which is usually after the Main Examination. The number in the notice is therefore an indication, not a commitment.

Reservation

Vacancies are reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections and Persons with Benchmark Disability as fixed by the Government. The notice sets out the category-wise break-up, including the sub-categories of disability against which each PwBD vacancy is identified.

IES / ISS Salary & Job Profile

UPSC IES / ISS posts carry Pay Level 10 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix (₹56,100 basic) at Junior Time Scale, plus Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Transport Allowance.

Posts and pay

Junior Time Scale posts in the Indian Economic Service and the Indian Statistical Service, placed across NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and other economic and statistical wings of the Government of India.

Allowances

Because HRA and Transport Allowance are city-linked, two officers on identical basic pay take home noticeably different amounts — a metro posting pays more in allowances than a district posting, though the district posting usually comes with official accommodation and a vehicle.

Career progression

Promotion follows time scales fixed for the service, moving through Junior Time Scale, Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade, Selection Grade and above. The pay matrix levels rather than the entry salary are what make these posts competitive over a career.