All about Civil Services exam, Eligibility and Recruitment

Civil Services is that branch of Government, which has permanent appointed officers in various sections dealing with administration of that service. These officers are called bureaucrats, hired after clearing of Civil Services UPS exam, and the tenure is long and permanent till one retires. The political leadership is tenure based and undergoes a change unlike civil servants who are permanently appointed.

Civil servants run the country according to the constitutional and legislative parameters laid down. They are equivalent to the management business administrators in the corporate world, only that the scope of work is wider and more important. They may be called as the administrator of the country in a permanent status.

There are about 24 services which fall under the Civil Services Exam conducted by UPSC every year for recruitment purposes. The allocation will depend on the merit list prepared after the Civil Service Exam conducted by UPSC.

These are: 

All India Services (Group A)

1. Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
2. Indian Police Service (IPS)

Central Services (Group A)

1. Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS)
2. Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS)
3. Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS)
4. Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)
5. Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES)
6. Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
7. Indian Information Service (IIS)
8. Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS)
9. Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service(IP&TAFS)
10. Indian Postal Service (IPoS)
11. Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS)
12. Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS)
13. Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS)
14. Indian Revenue Service (IRS-IT)
15. Indian Revenue Service (IRS-C&CE)
16. Indian Trade Service (ItrS)
17. Railway Protection Force (RPF)

Group B Services

1. Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (AFHCS)
2. Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS)
3. Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Service (DANIPS)
4. Pondicherry Civil Service (PCS)
5. Pondicherry Police Service (PPS)

What is the eligibility for IAS exam?

• Must be a graduate in any discipline from any recognized University.
• Must be more than 21 years of age 
• Upper age limit is 32 years for general candidates and so on

How many students appear for the Civil Service exam?

Around 10 lakh students apply for this exam each year and in the end almost a 

1000 will make the cut. It is a very tough exam and one has to prepare well to qualify.

Popular Civil Services Streams

It is difficult to pin point but IAS and IPS are very popular streams. don’t think you can classify any service as “best”! That is a very subjective and biased view. However it will depend on what are ones priorities and the kind of career one wants. Each service will have its pros and cons. Some of these are:

• IAS permits you to work in India, do very ingenious as well as fascinating things with your days, make lives much better with hands-on work however then you stay in some very remote areas with barely any amenities and also it may not always be easy to work.
• IPS provides you straight power to deal with points, catch the bad guys and put things to right, actually save people. However then it is a very hazardous work, not just for you but for your family members too.
• IFS allows you to take a trip the globe, discover as well as see various societies meet extremely fascinating people from all over the globe; but for a person that wishes to stay at residence, that would certainly be tough. And also you might not constantly obtain the best nations.
• IRS permits you to remain in bigger cities, have actually a rather worked out presence, while still succeeding at your task and also catch the large bad guys. It can get a little routine and there is much less straight communication with the population, if serving them is your straight goal.
  So it is all about what you want to be doing with your life.

Admission and Recruitment Process

Once the results for the UPSC Civil Service Examination declared, usually within a week after the completion of the process of recruitment commences.

1. Cut off marks for Prelims and Mains examinations, along with the overall cut off are declared
2. Detailed marksheet of Prelims, Mains and Interview for those who appeared for Mains Examination and passed in the Qualifying papers i.e. Regional language and English, is published.
3. Then the service allocation, which is done by Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT), based on rank and category of the candidates takes place. The allocation is done usually 6 weeks after the declaration of final results.
4. Allocation by DoPT is done in rounds. Those who are not allocated in the 1st round get a star (*) next to their name in the DoPT website. This * indicates that there may be problems such as temporarily unfit status after medical check-up, issues with documents submitted, etc. 
5. As the issues are resolved, the allocations are done.
6. Afer the allocation are done, one will get an official service allocation letter from DoPT via post and email.
7. After the letter is received, one has to join Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) located at Mussourie.  
8. Hus, the selected candidates will either join the Foundation Course or take exemption and go and join their respective training academies  like NADT, NACEN, SVPNPA, etc

Also See :

• Civil Services Admission
• Civil Services Exams