To become an IAS or IFS or IPS or IRS officer is a dream for many a young person. The door to these prestigious ranks is through the CSE or Civil Services Examination for All India Services (IAS, IFS and IPS). The examinations are conducted by the Union Public Service Commission in three stages and it is a combined process to recruit also for the other Central Group 'A' services such as Indian Trade Service or Indian Information Service etc.
The first stage is known as the Preliminary or 'Prelimns' by the aspirant community. This is a bulk elimination process to select those who will appear in the Main examination. There are two papers – Paper I and II which are to be answered in Multiple Choice Question format. There are 4 options and the aspirant is required to choose one which he believes to be the right answer. There are negative markings (1/3rd of marks assigned) for every wrong answer.
The syllabus of the paper I covers a wide range of topics in such as current events of national and international importance, history, geography, polity, poverty, society and economy of India. Also included are sustainable development, ecology, biodiversity and general science. There are 200 marks for 100 questions. The test duration is 2 hours. The UPSC notification / syllabus do not say very much about the scope of questions which will be asked by UPSC in the prelims. A thorough study of the past question paper reveal the fact that UPSC will ask question on anything imaginable including unexpected ones.
The syllabus of Paper II, also referred to as the ‘CSAT’ covers basic competence in Comprehension, reasoning and analytical capability, basic numerical capability and data interpretation. There are 80 questions for a total of 200 marks. The Civil Services Aptitude Test is now a qualifying paper and passing in this paper is mandatory with minimum 33% scoring required to pass. Marks in this paper will not count for the purpose of ranking.
Therefore, subject to passing in Paper-II, ranking in Preliminary Examinations will be determined only by the score achieved in Paper –I. In the present system of evaluation on Paper –I only, anyone scoring less than 65% cannot hope to cross the barrier of 'Prelimins'.
The next Preliminary Examination is scheduled to be held in early June 2017.
The Mains:
The second stage is that of preparing and
passing the ‘Mains’ examination which consists of 2 qualifying
papers, 5 compulsory papers and two optional papers in a chosen
subject.
The qualifying papers are Compulsory English paper ‘B’ and a Vernacular (one from a number of Indian languages). Passing in the English paper is mandatory. The papers test comprehension, a basic knowledge of grammar and ability to write précis and short essays. The candidate must score 25% marks at least in each of these papers – else the applicant is treated disqualified irrespective of the score in other papers. But marks scored in these two papers do not count for ranking. If one is found failing in the Compulsory English paper, then other papers written by the aspirant is not even checked and he is automatically disqualified; as such the performance in other papers becomes irrelevant.
The compulsory papers include these
Then the aspirant has to select one Optional subject which is examined in two papers. Each of the compulsory and optional paper carries 250 marks or altogether 1750 marks – not including those papers the marks secured for which does not count – such as the compulsory paper ‘B‘ or English..
The marks of the five compulsory plus the optional papers determine whether the aspirant will be eligible for the final stage personality test which is in the form of an interview in New Delhi. The interview carries 275 marks.
The Mains examination was held in the middle of December earlier but in 2017 it is expected to be held in the last week of October (5 days of examinations) and those who get suitable ranks are called for interview after about 3 to 4 months. Those scoring above cut off marks are called for the Mains examination by UPSC. In 2015 mains as many as 15008 aspirants had qualified.
Number of candidates allowed to cross the Preliminary exam for mains is in the range of 11 to 12 times the vacancies declared. Mains cut-off marks are designed to allow at least twice the number of applicants to the vacancies to go through for the interview.
Interview
Personality test or interview
is done at the UPSC office at Dholpur House - New Delhi by an
interview panel which makes an assessment of personality traits
emotional maturity, logical thinking capability, intellectual
and moral integrity, leadership quality, mental alertness and
awareness of surroundings , positive attitude etc.
Training
When an aspirant is selected
by UPSC, he undergoes extensive training at various
institutions during which he gets paid stipends. After
completion of training and orientation, the aspirant joins the
service.
The eligibility criteria
Documentary evidence of eligibility is required only at the time of applying for the Mains examination.
Applicants are allowed 6 attempts maximum for the general category and unlimited for other categories).
The Language choice
Candidate has
choice of writing the mains answer in one of the following 22
languages (enlisted in the 8th schedule of Constitution):
(1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri.
The Optional paper choice
One option
is to be chosen (with Papers I and II) from the option
available out of the following list:
(i)Agriculture
(ii)Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
(iii)Anthropology
(iv)Botany
(v)Chemistry
(vi)Civil Engineering
(vii)Commerce and Accountancy
(viii)Economics
(ix)Electrical Engineering
(x)Geography
(xi)Geology
(xii)History
(xiii)Law
(xiv)Management
(xv)Mathematics
(xvi)Mechanical Engineering
(xvii)Medical Science
(xviii)Philosophy
(xix)Physics
(xx)Political
Science and International Relations
(xxi)Psychology
(xxii)Public Administration
(xxiii)Sociology
(xxv)Zoology
(xxvi)Literature of any one of the
languages in the 8th schedule of constitution plus English
The Service choice
Applicant is to
select three options from the following indicating order of
preference (1st choice, 2nd choice, and 3rd choice
respectively) (i) The Indian Administrative Service. (ii)
Indian Foreign Service. (iii) Indian Police Service. (iv)
Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Group ‘A’. (v) Indian
Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (vi) Indian Revenue
Service (Customs and Central Excise), Group ‘A’. (vii) Indian
Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (viii) Indian Revenue
Service (I.T.), Group ‘A’. (ix) Indian Ordnance Factories
Service, Group ‘A’ (Assistant Works Manager-Administration).
(x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’. (xi) Indian Civil
Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (xii) Indian Railway Traffic
Service, Group ‘A’. (xiii) Indian Railway Accounts Service,
Group 'A'. (xiv) Indian Railway Personnel Service, Group ‘A’.
(xv) Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway
Protection Force, Group ‘A’ (xvi) Indian Defence Estates
Service, Group ‘A’. (xvii) Indian Information Service (Junior
Grade), Group ‘A’. (xviii) Indian Trade Service, Group 'A' (Gr.
III). (xix) Indian Corporate Law Service, Group "A". (xx) Armed
Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Group ‘B’ (Section Officer’s
Grade). (xxi) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep,
Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service, Group 'B'.
(xxii) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman &
Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service, Group 'B'. (xxiii)
Pondicherry Civil Service, Group 'B'. (xxiv) Pondicherry Police
Service, Group 'B'.
The State Choice
At the time of filling
up the application form, an aspirant is asked to give
preference for the state cadre (state in which the applicant
prefers to work as DM or in state secretariat) indicating order
of preferences such as (a) UP, (b) MP and (c) Chhattisgarh.
The application
Application is to be
filed online as given in UPSC website www.upsconline.nic.in.
Applicant is advised to mention email ID for contacting by
UPSC.
The reservation vacancies for categories
Usually, vacancies are reserved for OBC, SC, ST and handicapped
categories and the unreserved is the residue vacancies.
The qualifying and cut-off marks
The
qualifying marks specified are the minimum as follows
Irrespective of the aggregate marks obtained in of all the
papers to determine ranking in the Mains, a candidate must
score at least 10% marks in each of the Essay, GS-I, GS-II,
GS-III and GS IV and at least 25% in each of the two optional
papers. But more significant issue is the cut-off level – a
figure which keeps varying each year as it is impacted by two
facts, the first being the number of vacancies and the second
being the degree of competition or scoring by the top scorers.
The cut-off is the lowest total marks that will allow a
candidate to pass through the barrier – whether prelims, mains
or the exam itself, considering the interview performance as
well. For example in 2015 the Prelims cut-off marks was as
follows:
General category 107.34
OBC 106.0
SC 94.0
ST
91.34
For the mains 2015 (out of 1750 marks), the cut-off marks or the marks of the lowest scoring candidate who went through the mains was 676 in general category, 630 for OBC, 622 for SC and 617 for ST. For getting selected for IAS the ranking of an applicant should be within the top 60.
Other routes to IAS
All is not lost if
one fails to qualify for IAS in the UPSC conducted examination.
There are two other modes of recruitment to IAS which are known
as promotion quota. The first is from the State Civil Services
officers whose performance is exemplary in the state service –
this is known as through promotion and the IAS officers are
known as ‘Promotee officers’. At least 8 to 10 years of service
in the State cadre is essential before being considered. This
obviously means that a direct recruit through UPSC examination
gets to become a Collector (DM) in 3 to 4 years’ service as
SDM, the ‘Promotee officers’ gets the chance after a decade of
service starting as Tehsildar /Talukdar through Assistant
Collector (class-II) /SDM before getting a chance to get
promotion as DM. Only a handful from each State may qualify and
get selected but even those given a chance must appear in UPSC
conducted examination carrying 1000 marks. Occasionally,
non-state-cadre officers are also considered to be inducted in
the IAS. Approximately 1/3rd of recruitment to IAS is from the
promotion quota. Promotee IAS officers serve only within their
parent cadre states.