Odisha Higher Education Dept releases notice; set to provide free residential UPSC coaching to aspirants, details here

As per the notice issued by the ODHE, candidates will have to qualify an entrance exam to be eligible for the scheme. Candidates must be natives of Odisha.

The Odisha Higher Education Department has released a notification to provide free Civil Services (UPSC) coaching to candidates who are natives of Odisha. In an official notice, the ODHE informed various details such as eligibility criteria, age limit, educational qualifications, examination centre, and selection process of candidates who will be entitled to the scheme.

The Odisha Higher Education Department will be providing free residential coaching to aspirants. Candidates have to qualify an entrance exam to be eligible for the scheme. (Representative image) (Sanket Wankhade/HT PHOTO)

The duration of the coaching will be tentatively from the calendar months between June 2024 to April 2025.

Aspirants can submit the common application form (CAF) on the websites dheodisha.gov.in or samsodisha.gov.in till April 2, 2024.

As per the notice, a total of 200 aspirants will be selected after they qualify for a pre-qualifying entrance examination to be conducted by the State Selection Board, Higher Education Department on May 5, 2024.

Besides, 33 percent of seats in each category will be reserved for women candidates.

Students who qualify for the entrance exam will be provided free coaching, boarding, and accommodation in Bhubaneswar during the coaching program. As this is purely a residential coaching scheme, day scholars will not be allowed.

Aspirants are required to ensure a minimum of 90% attendance each month. Those who already availed and selected for the coaching under the scheme for 2023-24, are not eligible to apply.

In this article, we will look at the various requirements that candidates need to meet.

1. Eligibility Criteria:

The candidate must be a permanent domicile of Odisha to be eligible for the entrance examination.

2. Age limit:

The candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years on February 1st, 2024. In other words, the candidate must have been born not earlier than February 2, 1994, and not later than February 3, 2003.

Relaxation in upper age limit:

Up to a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe.

Up to a maximum of three years in the case of candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes/ Socially and Economically Backward Classes.

3. Minimum Educational Qualification

Candidates must have passed graduation or any equivalent qualification as of February 1st, 2024.

4. Selection of candidates:

• As already mentioned above, 200 aspirants will be selected through a pre-qualifying entrance examination for availing coaching at Centurion University of Technology and Management, Jatni.
• The number may be increased, if required, as per the notice.
• The Examination will be conducted offline and consist of one paper of multiple choice questions and carry a maximum of 200 marks. There will be two sections, Section-A (General studies based), and Section-B (Aptitude Test based). The duration of the examination will be 2 (two) hours.
• The Section B of the Entrance Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
• There will be a negative marking of 0.5 for each wrong answer marked by a candidate in the Objective Type Question Papers.

5. Syllabus for Entrance Examination:

As per the UPSC Civil Services Examination.

6. Centre of Examination:

The entrance examination will be conducted in Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Jeypore, and Sambalpur.

For more information, refer to the notice below:

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