Among 829 candidates who qualified the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams 2019, 197 are women, officials said on Wednesday.

The UPSC 2019 results were announced on Tuesday in which 23.7% women have qualified the examinations.

Pradeep Singh ranked first while third rank holder Pratibha Verma topped among the women candidates. Jatin Kishore secured the second position.

The number of successful women candidates is slightly more than in the 2018 civil services exam. In 2018 civil services exam, 759 candidates had qualified — of which 182 were women, accounting for 23.9% of total.

“Government strives to have a workforce which reflects gender balance and women candidates are encouraged to apply,” the UPSC has been saying in its notifications for the civil services examinations for the last few years.

The UPSC, which conducts the examination, select candidates annually for Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) in three phases — preliminary, main and interview.

Of the total candidates, who qualified the 2019 civil services exam results, 304 are from General category, 78 from Economically Weaker Section (EWS), 251 from Other Backward Classes (OBC), 129 from Scheduled Castes (SC) and 67 from Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, according to the UPSC.

A total of 182 other candidates have been put in the reserve list, it said.

There were 927 vacancies reported by the government for selection through the civil services examination 2019.