Indian Administration Service

The civil service examination is one of the most prestigious compitative examination in the country(India). The IAS plays a major role in maintaining the bureaucracy of both the union government(Central Govt.) and state Govt. with the officers holding the powerful posts across the country. The career path of IAS officers is well defined.

Position in the Govt. of India	Equivalent position in the state Govt.
Under secretary (4)	Deputy secretary ADDL. District Magistrate (entry)
Deputy secretary (9)	Joint secretary District Magistrate Deputy Commissioner (6)
Director (12)	Special Secretary Head of the Department (HOD) (9)
Joint Secretary (30)	Principal Secretaries Financial commissioners (24)
Secretary (34)	Chief Secretary (30)
Cabinet Secretary	No Equivalent (Constitutional Authority ranked 11th in the table of precedence)

• Figure in the bracket indicate minimum years in the IAS to achive said designation though not the only criteria.
• As discernable it takes a longer time to achive equivalent position at the centre due to lack of vacancies and slower state of promotions.

If one aspire to become IAS officer one has to take civil service examination (CSE) conducted by union public service commission(UPSC) in two stage.

• Civil Service Preliminary Examination (Objective type) for the selection of candidate for the main examination.
• Civil Service Examination (written/Interview) for the selection of candidate for the various service and the posts as mentioned in the commission’s Examination notice.

To clear this Examination one should have well-planned two-pronged strategy

Success happens when preparation meets performance. The road-map for success can be briefly put like this:

PLAN --> PREPARE --> PRACTISE --> PERFORM --> WIN

With this short Introduction we will take you on a conducted tour of how to prepare for “the career”, i.e. career in Civil Services or simply put IAS.

For some, the three letter of English alphabet I.A.S remains a childhood dream for some a route to corridor of power while for others, it is a divine opportunities to serve the mankind.

Civil Service is unparallel with other job option. People always look towards them as great achievers in life. Which gives a great accomplishment to the Civil Servants.

But as they say “It takes one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration”, so, it is certainly a tough nut to crack.

Before taking a leap into this fray, take a pause and ask yourself - Do you have all that it takes to be a civil service? If your heart and mind together say an emphatic ’yes’, then there’s no time to look back. Take your first step with confidence and a positive frame of mind. Invest your most precious possession, your ’youthhood’ into it and find a new meaningful life in return.

Have faith in yourself and your ability. If you think you can do it, you can certainly do it. Leave no room for doubts in your mind.

Many of the great people have done it before, and now its your turn to achieve the goal of your childhood dream and now we will present here a right path of the Civil Service Examination.

We wish you all the best.

Eligibility:

• The candidate must be an Indian Citizen
• The candidate should hold a degree in any discipline from a recognized University.
• The candidate should have attained the minimum age of 1 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years as on August 1 of the year of examination. The upper age limit is relaxable up to maximum of five years for OBC, and 10 years for physically challenges persons.

Every candidate appearing for the examination shall be permitted to take four attempts. The number of attempts will no apply in the case of scheduled caste and scheduled tribes candidates, the number of attempts for the candidates belonging to other backward classes shall be seven.

PLAN OF EXAMINATION

Preliminary Examination: The preliminary examination is held in the main of many every year. The preliminary examination consists of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice) questions. And carry a maximum of 450 marks. This examination is meant to serve as screening test only. The marks obtained in the preliminary examination by the candidate, who are declared are not counted for determining their final order of merit.

The two paper for preliminary examination are

• Paper I (Compulsory): General studies 150 marks
• Paper II (Optional): you must select one of the following subject as optional subject as optional subjects. 300 marks

Optional Subjects:

• Agriculture
• Animal husbandry and Veterinary Science
• Botany
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Commerce
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Geography
• Geology
• Indian History
• Law
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Science
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Political science
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Sociology
• Statistics
• Zoology