The government has announced that the UPSC's notification on making English a compulsory paper in its examination will be kept in abeyance.

Making a statement in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Personnel, V. Narayanasamy said a candidate can write his paper in any of the scheduled Indian Languages as before.

The English component from the Essay Paper will also be dropped and status quo ante of two qualifying papers in any modern Indian Language and English restored.

Undoing other recent changes notified by the UPSC for the Civil Services Main Examination, 2013, the Minister announced that candidates can also take up literature in any of the 22 Indian scheduled languages besides English as an optional subject without the condition of having graduated in that particular language's literature.