New Delhi: A total of 734 candidates, including 22 physically handicapped persons, have made it to the prestigious civil services this year, including for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS).

Based on the results of the main test conducted in October-November, 2007 and the interviews earlier this year, a total number of 734 candidates were recommended for appointment into the IAS, IFS, Indian Police Service (IPS) and other civil service posts.

Of the total number of candidates who have qualified 286 are from general category (including 12 physically challenged candidates), 266 other backward classes (including 5 physically challenged candidates), 128 scheduled castes (including 5 Physically challenged candidates) and 54 scheduled tribes candidates, the UPSC announced on Friday.

However, UPSC said that appointment to the various services would be made according to the number of vacancies.

The number of vacancies reported by the central government for the IAS was 111, (56 general, 28 OBCs, 18 scheduled castes and 9 scheduled tribes). For the Indian Foreign Service there are only 20 vacancies, for IPS there are 103 vacancies, for the Central Services Group 'A' the number of vacancies were 458 and for Central Services Group 'B' there are only 42 vacancies.

In a major decision, the UPSC decided to make available the marks obtained by candidates 15 days after the declaration of results. IANS