IMPORTANT

1.       CANDIDATES TO ENSURE THEIR ELIGIBILITIY FOR THE EXAMINATION:

Candidates applying for the Examination should ensure that they fulfill all eligibility conditions for admission to the Examination. Their admission at all the stages of the Examination will be purely provisional subject to satisfying the prescribed eligibility conditions.

Mere issue of Admission Certificate to the candidate will not imply that his/her candidature has been finally cleared by the Commission.

Verification of eligibility conditions with reference to original documents is taken up only after the candidate has qualified for Interview/Personality Test.

2. HOW TO APPLY :

Candidates are required to apply online only by using the website https://upsconline.nic.in. Brief instructions for filling up the online Application Form have been given in Appendix-II. Detailed instructions are available on the above mentioned website.

2.1 Candidate should have details of one Photo ID Card viz. Aadhaar Card/Voter Card/PAN Card/Passport/Driving Licence/Any other Photo ID Card issued by the State/Central Government. The details of this Photo ID Card will have to be provided by the candidate while filling up the online application form. The candidates will have to upload a scanned copy of the Photo ID whose details have been provided in the online application by him/her. This Photo ID Card will be used for all future referencing and the candidate is advised to carry this Photo ID Card while appearing for Examination/ Personality Test.

2.2 The facility of withdrawal of Application is available for those candidates who do not want to appear for the Examination. In this regard, instructions are mentioned in Appendix-II (B) of this Examination Notice.

3. LAST DATE OF SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS:

1. The Online Applications can be filled up to 15th October, 2019 till 06:00 P.M.

2. The online Applications can be withdrawn from 22.10.2019 to 28.10.2019 till 06:00 P.M.

4. The eligible candidates shall be issued an e-Admission Certificate three weeks before the commencement of the Examination. The e-Admission Certificate will be made available in the UPSC website [https://upsconline.nic.in] for downloading by candidates. No Admission Certificate will be sent by post. All the applicants are required to provide valid active E-Mail I.D. while filling up Online Application Form as the Commission may use electronic mode for contacting them at different stages of examination process.

5. PENALTY FOR WRONG ANSWERS (in Objective Type Papers) :

Candidates should note that there will be penalty (Negative Marking) for wrong answers marked by a candidate in the Objective Type Question Papers.

6. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS :

Candidates are advised to read carefully “Special Instructions to the candidates for Objective Type Test and Conventional Type Test” (Appendix III - Part A and Part B).

The Preliminary Examination for Combined Geo-Scientist Examination for two Objective Type papers will be conducted in Computer Based Mode. A demo module for Computer Based Mode of this Examination will be available on UPSC website https://upsc.gov.in at the time of launching of e-Admit Card.

7. FACILITATION COUNTER FOR GUIDANCE OF CANDIDATES :

In case of any guidance/information/clarification regarding their applications, candidature etc. candidates can contact UPSC's Facilitation Counter near 'C' Gate of its campus in person or over Telephone No. 011-23385271/011-23381125/01123098543 on working days between 10.00 hrs and 17.00 hrs.

8. Mobile Phones Banned:

1. The use of any mobile phone (even in switched off mode), pager or any electronic equipment or programmable device or storage media like pen drive, smart watches etc. or camera or blue tooth devices or any other equipment or related accessories either in working or switched off mode capable of being used as a communication device during the Examination is strictly prohibited. Any infringement of these instructions shall entail disciplinary action including ban from future Examinations.
   2. Candidates are advised in their own interest not to bring any of the banned item including mobile phones or any valuable/costly items to the venue of the Examination, as arrangement for safe-keeping cannot be assured. Commission will not be responsible for any loss in this regard.

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No.4/2/2019- E.l(B) : The Union Public Service Commission will hold a Combined Geo-Scientist (Preliminary) Examination, 2020 (Computer Based Test) on 19th January, 2020 for selection to the Combined Geo-Scientist (Main) Examination, 2020, in accordance with the Rules published by the Ministry of Mines in the Gazette of India dated 25th September, 2019.

6. 1. 1. The Preliminary Examination will be held at the following Centers:
   1. AHMEDABAD  (2) BANGALURU (3) BHOPAL (4) CHANDIGARH (5) CHENNAI (6) CUTTACK
7. DELHI (8) DISPUR (9) HYDERABAD (10) JAIPUR (11) JAMMU (12) KOLKATA (13) LUCKNOW

14. MUMBAI (15) PATNA (16) PRAYAGRAJ (ALLAHABAD) (17) SHILLONG (18) SHIMLA (19) THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Centres and the dates of holding the Examination as mentioned above are liable to be changed at the discretion of the Commission. Applicants should note that there will be a ceiling on the number of candidates allotted to each of the Centre, except Chennai, Delhi, Dispur, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Allotment of Centres will be on the "first-apply-first-

allot" basis, and once the capacity of a particular Centre is a tt a ine d, th e sa me w i l l b e f ro z en . Applicants, who cannot get a Centre of their choice due to ceiling, will be required to choose a Centre from the remaining ones. Applicants are, thus, advised that they may apply early so that they could get a Centre of their choice.

NB: Notwithstanding the aforesaid provision, Commission reserves the right to change the Centres at their discretion if the situation demands. Candidates admitted to the Examination will be informed of the time table and place or places of Examination. Candidates should note that no request for change of centre will be granted. All the

Examination Centres for the Examination will cater to the examination for Persons with

Benchmark Disabilities also.

(B) PLAN OF EXAMINATION

The Combined Geo-Scientist Examination will consist of three successive stages (vide Appendix I Section-I below):-

Stage-I : Computer Based Combined Geo-Scientist (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) having two papers for selection of the candidates for the Combined Geo-Scientist (Main) Examination. Marks secured in the Preliminary Examination will be counted for deciding the final merit;

Stage-II : Combined Geo-Scientist (Main) Examination (Descriptive Type) having three papers for selection of candidates for the Personality Test (Stage-III). Marks secured in the Main Examination will be counted for deciding the final merit; and

Stage-III: Personality Test/Interview

Applications are now invited for the Computer Based Preliminary Examination only. Candidates who will be declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Computer Based Preliminary Examination will be allowed to take the Combined Geo-Scientist (Main) Examination. The Main Examination will be held on 27th & 28th June, 2020. The Main Examination will be held on the following Centres :

Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Dispur (Guwahati), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Shimla.

2(a). The categories of post to which recruitment is to be made on the results of this

Examination and the approximate number of vacancies in the various posts are given

below:-

Category-I : (Posts in the Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Mines).

Category - II : (Posts in the Central Ground Water Board, M i n i s t r y o f Water Resources)

(i) Junior Hydrogeologists (Scientist B), Group A : 03

NOTE : Following vacancies are reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disability:

05 vacancies of Geologist {03 for Deaf or Hard of Hearing (PD) and 02 vacancies for Locomotor disability or Cerebral Palsy etc.(OH(OA/OL)}

01 vacancy of Chemist (Deaf or Hard of Hearing).

The above numbers of vacancies are liable to alteration.

Appointments will be made on a temporary basis in the first instance.

Reservations will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Economically Weaker Sections and Persons with Benchmark disability categories in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government.

A candidate will be eligible to get the benefit of community reservation only in case the particular caste to which the candidates belong is included in the list of reserved communities issued by the

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Central Government. The candidates will be eligible to get the benefit of the Economically Weaker Section reservation only in case the candidate meets the criteria issued by the Central Government and in possession of such eligibility certification. If a candidate indicates in his/her application form for Combined Geo-Scientist Examination that he/she belongs to General category but subsequently writes to the Commission to change his/her category to a reserved one, such request shall not be entertained by the Commission. Further, once a candidate has chosen a reserved category, no request shall be entertained for change to other reserved category viz. SC to ST, ST to SC, OBC to SC/ST or SC/ST to OBC, SC to EWS, EWS to SC, ST to EWS, EWS to ST, OBC to EWS, EWS to OBC. No reserved category candidates other than those recommended on General Merit shall be allowed to change his/her category from Reserved to Unreserved or claim the vacancies for UR category after the declaration of final result by UPSC.

Further no Person with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) of any subcategory thereunder shall be allowed to change his/her sub-category of disability.

While the above principle will be followed in general, there may be a few cases where there was a gap not more than 3 months between the issuance of a Government Notification enlisting a particular community in the list of any of the reserved communities and the date of submission of the application by the candidate. In such cases the request of change of community from general to reserved may be considered by the Commission on merit. In case of a candidate unfortunately becoming person with benchmark disability during the course of the examination process, the candidate should produce valid documents showing him/her acquiring a disability to the extent of 40% or more as defined under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 to enable him/her to get the benefits of reservation earmarked for persons with benchmark disability provided he/she otherwise remains eligible for Geologist, Group A, Geophysicist, Group A, Chemist. Group A and Junior Hydrogeologist posts as per Rule 21 of the Rules of the Combined Geo-scientist Examination, 2020.

Candidates seeking reservation/relaxation benefits available for SC/ST/OBC/ EWSs/PwBD/Ex-servicemen must ensure that they are entitled to such reservation/relaxation as per eligibility prescribed in the Rules/Notice. They should also be in possession of all the requisite certificates in the prescribed format in support of their claim as stipulated in the Rules/Notice for such benefits, and these certificates should be dated earlier than the due date (closing date) of the application.

2(b). A candidate may apply for admission to the Stage-I Combined Geo-Scientist (Preliminary) Examination through the On-line Application Form in respect of any one or both the categories, mentioned in Para 2(a) above. Once an application has been made, no change will be allowed.

If a candidate wishes to be admitted for both the categories, he/she need to fill in only one application. He/She will be required to pay the fee mentioned in para 4 below once only and will not be required to pay separate fee for each of the categories for which he/she applies.

A candidate may compete for any one or both the categories of Posts for which he/she is eligible in terms of Rules. A candidate who qualifies for both the categories of Posts on the result of the Stage-II Combined Geo-Scientist (Main) Examination will be required to indicate clearly in the Detailed Application Form the categories of Posts for which he/ she wishes to be considered in the order of preference.

N.B: (i) : No request for making subsequent addition/alteration in the details indicated by a candidate in his/her Online Application Form/Detailed Application Form will be entertained by the Commission.

N.B:(ii) : The selection of candidates for the posts of Geologist, Geophysicist and Chemist in GSI in the Ministry of Mines and Jr. Hydrogeologists (Scientist B), Group A, in CGWB in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation shall be strictly in accordance with their merit position in each category and number of vacancies separately.

N.B.(iii): In case of common candidates of Geologist and Jr. Hydrogeologist, they will be recommended by the Commission for one post only based on the preferences given by them in the Detailed Application Forms, order of merit and number of vacancies.

3. ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS :

(I) Nationality

A candidate must be either:

1. 1. a Citizen of India, or
   2. a subject of Nepal, or
   3. a subject of Bhutan, or
   4. a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before the 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India. or

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1. 1. 1. 5. a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka or East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire and Ethiopia or from Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.

Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (b), (c), (d) and (e) above shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.

A candidate in whose case a certificate of eligibility is necessary, may be admitted to the Examination but the offer of appointment may be given only after the necessary eligibility certificate has been issued to him/her by the Government of India.

2. Age Limits: A candidate for this Examination must have attained the age criteria as prescribed below:-

1. 1. For Geologist and Geophysicist and Chemist (Group 'A') in the Geological Survey of India, an attached office of Ministry of Mines, Government of India: A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on the first day of the month of January of the year in which the Examination is to be held (i.e. as on 1st January, 2020] i.e. he/she must have been born not earlier than 2nd January, 1988 and not later than 1st January 1999.

1. 1. 2. For Jr. Hydrogeologist (Scientist B) (Group A) in Central Ground water Board, Ministry of Water Resources:-

Must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained at the age of 35 years on 1s t January, 2020 i.e. he/she must have been born not later than 2n d

January 1985 and not later than 1s t  January 1999.

NB: Candidates should ensure that they meet the age eligibility criteria for each post mentioned above for which they are applying.

3. The upper age limit will be relaxable upto a maximum of 7 years in the case of Government servants, if they are employed in a Department mentioned in Column I below and apply for the corresponding post mentioned in column II.

d) The upper age limit prescribed above will be further relaxable as follows:

1. Upto a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled

Tribe.