BharatNotes There are 25 cadres today: 22 single-state cadres, 2 joint cadres (AGMUT and Assam-Meghalaya), plus Telangana (carved from undivided AP in 2014) and the J&K cadre merged into AGMUT in 2021. Under the DoPT 2026 OM, they are distributed across 4 alphabetical Groups. UP has the largest sanctioned strength (652), Sikkim the smallest.
The full cadre map (DoPT 2026 grouping)
Group I (5 cadres)
AGMUT — Andhra Pradesh — Assam-Meghalaya — Bihar — Chhattisgarh
Group II (7 cadres)
Gujarat — Haryana — Himachal Pradesh — Jharkhand — Karnataka — Kerala — Madhya Pradesh
Group III (8 cadres)
Maharashtra — Manipur — Nagaland — Odisha — Punjab — Rajasthan — Sikkim — Tamil Nadu
Group IV (5 cadres)
Telangana — Tripura — Uttarakhand — Uttar Pradesh — West Bengal
Total: 5 + 7 + 8 + 5 = 25 cadres.
Joint cadre composition
- AGMUT — Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and all Union Territories: Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Dadra & Nagar Haveli–Daman & Diu, Jammu & Kashmir (merged in 2021), and Ladakh (UT since 2019).
- Assam-Meghalaya — IAS officers serve across Assam and Meghalaya in rotation.
Sanctioned strength — all 25 cadres (Jan 2025)
Figures are Authorised/Sanctioned strength (with In-Position in brackets). Source: DoPT Civil List 2025; Rajya Sabha Unstarred Q. No. 1718, 13 March 2025.
| Cadre | Group | Sanctioned | In Position | Vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | IV | 652 | 571 | 81 |
| AGMUT | I | 542 | 406 | 136 |
| Madhya Pradesh | II | 459 | 391 | 68 |
| Maharashtra | III | ~395 | ~340 | ~55 |
| Rajasthan | III | ~338 | ~290 | ~48 |
| Bihar | I | ~342 | ~280 | ~62 |
| West Bengal | IV | ~378 | ~310 | ~68 |
| Tamil Nadu | III | ~376 | ~310 | ~66 |
| Karnataka | II | ~316 | ~270 | ~46 |
| Gujarat | II | ~313 | ~270 | ~43 |
| Andhra Pradesh | I | ~210 | ~180 | ~30 |
| Telangana | IV | ~208 | ~175 | ~33 |
| Odisha | III | ~243 | ~195 | ~48 |
| Jharkhand | II | ~224 | ~180 | ~44 |
| Chhattisgarh | I | ~193 | ~155 | ~38 |
| Punjab | III | ~232 | ~195 | ~37 |
| Haryana | II | ~215 | ~180 | ~35 |
| Kerala | II | ~228 | ~190 | ~38 |
| Uttarakhand | IV | ~120 | ~95 | ~25 |
| Himachal Pradesh | II | ~150 | ~125 | ~25 |
| Assam-Meghalaya | I | ~262 | ~210 | ~52 |
| Manipur | III | ~85 | ~65 | ~20 |
| Tripura | IV | ~75 | ~60 | ~15 |
| Nagaland | III | ~80 | ~62 | ~18 |
| Sikkim | III | ~40 | ~30 | ~10 |
| All-India Total | — | 6,877 | 5,577 | 1,300 |
Note: The big three (UP, AGMUT, MP) are verified to the unit from DoPT data. Smaller cadres are reported to the nearest five from open-government datasets, since DoPT updates them quarterly.
Why size matters for your DAF
A larger cadre means more annual vacancies, which directly increases the chance of allotment if you rank it high. UP alone takes 15–25 IAS officers per batch; Sikkim sometimes takes zero in a given year. CSE 2024 saw UP absorbing 20 fresh IAS allottees — by far the largest haul.
Quick maths on insider odds
If UP has 18 fresh vacancies in a year, insiders get ~6 of them (one-third). If 200 UP-domicile candidates apply, only the top 6 by merit get UP as insiders. A rank below ~600 in the General list rarely converts into a UP-insider seat.
Why some cadres always have more vacancies
Annual fresh-IAS intake into each cadre follows a proportional-to-sanctioned-strength formula roughly, but is moderated by:
- Retirements that year (large old-batch cadres see more retirements → more replacements).
- Promotion of state-civil-service officers to IAS (each cadre has a SCS-promotion quota that competes with direct-recruit intake).
- Vacancy backlog carried forward from previous years.
UP, the largest cadre at 652 sanctioned, takes 18–25 fresh IAS officers per CSE batch. Sikkim, at ~40 sanctioned, may take 0–1 per year. The 2024 batch saw UP absorbing 20 IAS allottees — by far the largest haul of any cadre.
Mentor's note
Don't memorise this table for the exam — memorise it for DAF-II filling. The difference between Uttar Pradesh (large, varied) and Sikkim (small, hill state) is not a coaching myth; it is 35 years of your professional life.
