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UPSC Assistant Director, IEDS (Food) 2026

UPSC recruits Assistant Director Grade-I and Grade-II (Food) officers for the Indian Enterprise Development Service (IEDS), Office of the Development Commissioner (MSME).

Previous papers
11
Full mocks
28
Sectionals
33

Syllabus-aligned UPSC IEDS (Food) notes, solved questions and practice sets. Preview 20 pages free.

View syllabus & exam pattern

Current Issues: Social, Economic and Industrial DevelopmentEconomy, MSME, social development, world affairs213 pages Reasoning, Mathematics and StatisticsReasoning, mathematics, statistics, probability305 pages Energy, Environment and Material ScienceEnergy, environment, material science366 pages Project Management, ICT and Professional EthicsProject management, ICT, ethics341 pages

Open study materials

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recruits Assistant Director Grade-I and Grade-II (Food) officers for the Indian Enterprise Development Service (IEDS), under the Office of the Development Commissioner (MSME). The 2026 cycle has seven Food posts: three Grade-I and four Grade-II. Applications closed on 12 June 2026; the combined offline recruitment test is scheduled for 11 October 2026, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.

Conducted by
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
2026 combined recruitment-test notice (opens on the official site) UPSC Advertisement No. 05/2026 (opens on the official site) 2025 combined recruitment-test notice (opens on the official site) UPSC recruitment-test notices (opens on the official site) UPSC final-result archives (opens on the official site)

Who can apply

For the 2026 Food posts, UPSC accepts a B.Tech in Food Technology or a Post Graduate Diploma in Fruits Technology. Applications for this cycle closed on 12 June 2026.

  • Grade-I (Vacancy No. 26050521623): 3 posts — UR 1, OBC 1, SC 1; Pay Level 10; age 30 years UR, 33 OBC, 35 SC
  • Grade-II (Vacancy No. 26050522623): 4 posts — UR 2, OBC 1, ST 1; Pay Level 7; age 30 years UR, 33 OBC, 35 ST
  • Essential qualification for both posts: B.Tech Food Technology or PG Diploma in Fruits Technology from a recognised university or institute
  • Combined offline test: 11 October 2026, 2:00-4:00 PM; objective, English and Hindi, with one-third negative marking

A summary. Confirm the details in the current notice.

Source: UPSC Advertisement No. 05/2026 ↗. Source: UPSC 2026 combined RT notice ↗. Checked 2026-09-13.

Based on past papers, not an official scheme. Confirm in the current notice.

Every section is compulsory, with no choice between them, and the paper is timed at 120 minutes.

Sections, questions and marks
Section Questions Marks Status
General Studies and Engineering Aptitude 120 300 Compulsory
Paper total 120 300

The 2026 UPSC notice fixes a two-hour bilingual (English and Hindi) objective paper with equal marks and a one-third penalty for each wrong answer. It does not state the question count or total marks; 120 questions and 300 marks are taken from both actual 2024 IEDS General Aptitude Test booklets supplied with these resources.

Marking scheme

Each question carries 2.5 marks (120 questions, 300 marks). A wrong answer loses one-third of its marks (0.83). An unanswered question scores zero. Our mocks for this exam are scored the same way.

Source: UPSC addendum notice, combined RT 11.10.2026 ↗

The 2026 rows are the current advertised vacancies; applicant counts are not yet published. The 2024 cut-offs are for Assistant Director Grade-II (Food), IEDS, Advertisement No. 10/2024 (Vacancy No. 24051023625). A dash means UPSC did not report a figure in the supplied result sheet.

Vacancies and applicant volume

Vacancies and applicants by recruitment cycle
YearPostVacanciesCategory splitApplicants / appearedSource
2026 Assistant Director Grade-I (Food) 3 UR 1, OBC 1, SC 1 Not published UPSC Advertisement No. 05/2026 ↗
2026 Assistant Director Grade-II (Food) 4 UR 2, OBC 1, ST 1 Not published UPSC Advertisement No. 05/2026 ↗
2025 Assistant Director Grade-I (Food) 17 Category split not stated in the supplied test-date notice 2,089 (Gen 759, OBC 850, EWS 102, SC 307, ST 71) UPSC notice ↗ Applicant-count reply ↗
2025 Assistant Director Grade-II (Food) 4 Category split not stated in the supplied test-date notice 1,324 (Gen 535, OBC 575, EWS 74, SC 112, ST 28) UPSC notice ↗ Applicant-count reply ↗
2024 Assistant Director Grade-II (Food) 19 UR 1, OBC 8, SC 6, ST 2, EWS 2; one vacancy reserved for PH-HI 402 appeared in the recruitment test UPSC marks and cut-off sheet ↗

Category-wise cut-off marks

Category-wise cut-off marks by year
Year Stage UR OBC SC ST EWS PH-HI Source
2024 Recruitment Test (out of 300) 100.83 70.83 57.50 55.00 63.33 15.00 UPSC result sheet ↗
2024 Interview (out of 100) 50 45 40 40 50 40 UPSC result sheet ↗
2024 Final selection (out of 400) — 142.00 127.50 136.50 139.83 69.00 UPSC result sheet ↗
2024 Highest marks — 155.83 142.83 140.18 163.18 69.00 UPSC result sheet ↗

Compared across past papers. Not an official announcement.

Detected changes between consecutive papers
Change Compared papers Before After What changed
2025 UPSC IEDS Previous Year Paper Year_2025B → UPSC IEDS Previous Year Paper Year_2025A 100 q 200 marks 120 min 1 section 100 q 200 marks 120 min 1 section
Dropped General Studies & Engineering Aptitude Added General Aptitude Test

Free PDFs and recommended books for UPSC Assistant Director, IEDS (Food). How we choose

Core food technology

4 resources

Core food technology

Textbook of Food Science and Technology (ICAR)

Indian food technology baseline for processing, preservation, chemistry.

Reading suggestion

Core food technology

Food Science by B. Srilakshmi

Useful for food chemistry, nutrition, preservation.

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Microbiology

Food Microbiology by M. R. Adams and M. O. Moss

Strong reference for spoilage, pathogens, fermentation.

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Food engineering

Food Process Engineering and Technology by Zeki Berk

Good engineering reference for heat transfer, dehydration, freezing.

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Aptitude and general studies

2 resources

Aptitude

Quantitative Aptitude by R. S. Aggarwal

Useful for arithmetic, reasoning-adjacent quantitative practice in recruitment papers.

Reading suggestion

General studies

Lucent General Knowledge

Compact static GK reference for state FSO, FCI.

Reading suggestion

Free channels worth following for UPSC Assistant Director, IEDS (Food).

YouTube channels

1 channel

Full topic list and section weightage UPSC Assistant Director, IEDS (Food) syllabus and exam pattern

IEDS previous-year papers

The real IEDS 2026 General Aptitude Test held on 11 October 2026 is available with all 100 questions. An answer key has not yet been verified, so this paper is available for reading rather than scored practice.

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Tests for this exam

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