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Introduction

The Indian Civil Service serves as the backbone of India and carries great respect and responsibilities. India's best brains vie for entry into the Indian Civil Services as officers. Even though corporate jobs may offer the best of salaries and perks, a majority of youngsters and their parents still crave entry to the prestigious Indian Civil Services held by the UPSC. The very fact that a big share of every year's top posts in the civil services exams are bagged by professionals from various streams, shows that the IAS is still the dream job for many.

In our effort to be of use to the various civil services aspirants here is a list of tools and resources to give an edge to your prepration for the Civil Service exams conducted by the UPSC India. The competition being very very tough for the IAS examination, one has to be prepared to put in hours (10 to 12 hours) of work and take repeated attempts at the UPSC civil services exam.

 

 

LIST OF EXAMINATION CENTRES:

The UPSC has a list of centers where candidates can appear. Most state capital cities have a center, so choosing a Upsc center near your place of study or residence should not be difficult. Changing of centers once filled is a difficult proposition, so be very careful as to what you fill as your center of examination.

Centre	Code	Centre	Code	Centre	Code
Agartala	45	Gangtok	42	Panaji ( Goa )	36
Ahmedabad	01	Hyderabad	10	Patna	15
Aizawl	47	Imphal	44	Pondicherry	20
Aligarh	21	Itanagar	48	Port Blair	37
Allahabad	02	Jaipur	11	Raipur	49
Aurangabad	38	Jammu	34	Ranchi	41
Bangalore	03	Jodhpur	22	Sambalpur	53
Bareilly	54	Jorhat	46	Shillong	16
Bhopal	04	Kochi	24	Shimla	17
Chandigarh	35	Kohima	43	Srinagar	18
Chennai	12	Kolkata	06	Thiruvananthapuram	19
Cuttack	07	Lucknow	26	Tirupati	50
Dehradun	14	Madurai	40	Udaipur	52
Delhi	08	Mumbai	05	Vishakhapatnam	51
Dharwar	39	Nagpur	13	Dispur	09

 

 

SCHEME OF EXAMINATION:

The Civil Services Examination is conducted by UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) every year.
The examination has three stages i.e.,
(1) Civil Services Preliminary Examinations (CSP) - normally conducted during the second half of May.
(2) Civil Services (Main) Examinations conducted during the month of October/November. Here, those who are selected in the preliminary examination only are eligible to appear.
(3) Those who are selected in the main examination will be eligible to appear before the Interview Board at New Delhi.

Preliminary Examination (CSP)

CSP consists of two papers i.e., (1) optional subject to be selected from the listed subject for 300 marks. (2) General studies for 150 marks. Total of 450 marks. Each paper is of two hours duration. The course content of the syllabi for the optional subjects is at the degree level. Normally, there are about 3 lakh applications for the preliminary examination. From this, the UPSC selects 10 to 12 folds of vacancies for the main examinations. This is only for the selection and not to be taken into consideration in the main ranking.

Subjects for Preliminary Examination:

The General Studies syllabus is same for all.

Subjects for Paper II (one subject to be selected):

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.

(The question papers are in Hindi and English and each paper is of two hours duration. The course content of the syllabi is of degree level. Each paper is of two hours duration. Blind candidates are allowed an extra time of 20 minutes for each paper.)

Main Examination

Only those who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in a year, are eligible for the Main examination of that year, provided they are otherwise eligible for the Main Examination.

Civil Services Main examination has two optional subjects (two papers each carries 300 marks), one General Studies (two papers each carries 300 marks), one essay (carries 200 marks) - total 2000 marks. Other than this, there are two language papers one in Indian language and one in General English at the level of 10th standard. This is to test the ability of the candidate's proficiency in his mother tongue / Indian language and English. Total nine papers. These two papers carry 300 marks each but it will not be considered for the ranking. It is must to clear these two papers. If a candidate fails to clear these papers, his other papers will not be evaluated.

The Main Examination is intended to assess the overall intellectual traits and the depth of understanding of the candidates, rather than merely the range of their information and memory. Sufficient choice of questions is allowed in the question papers.

Optional Subjects for the Main Examination: 

Optional subjects: Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce and Accountancy, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, History, Law, Management, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science and International Relations, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics, Zoology. Each paper is of 3 hours duration.

Literatures:

Arabic, Assamese, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Manipuri, Nepali, Oriya, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.

The following combinations not allowed are:

Political Science & International Relations and Public Administration
Commerce and Management
Anthropology and Sociology
Maths and Statistics
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
Management and Public Administration
Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science and Medical Science
Any two branches of engineering.
Combination of two literatures in the above list.

Interview:

At interview stage, two-fold vacancies are called to appear before the UPSC Board. Interview carries 300 marks. Interview calls are sent on the basis of minimum marks fixed by the UPSC at its discretion. The overall ranking is done based on the Mains performance (i.e., 2000 marks) and interview. Therefore, the total marks involved in the ranking are 2300. Candidates are allotted various services keeping in view their ranks in the examination and preferences given by them in their main application form.

Note:

If a person fails in either in mains or interview, he has to appear once again from the preliminary stage.

HOW TO APPLY :

The UPSC have developed an application form common for all their examinations, which will be processed on computerised machines. This application form alongwith an Information Brochure containing general instructions for filling up the form, an acknowledgement card and an envelope for sending the application is obtainable from the designated Head Post Offices/Post Offices throughout the country as against cash payment of Rs. 20/- (Rupees twenty only). Form should be purchased from the designated Post Offices only and not from any other agency. This form can be used only once and for only one examination. Candidates must use the form supplied with the Information Brochure only and they should in no case use photocopy / reproduction / unauthorisedly printed copy of the Form. Since this form is electronically scannable, due care should be taken to fill up the application form, correctly. While filling up the application form, please refer to detailed instructions given in the Notice.

SERVICE:

Depending upon his rank, a candidate is recruited to services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and other departments including Finance, Post and Telegraph, Revenue, Secretariat and so on. The appointment offers executive power. Promotions are time bound and increase in privileges are automatic. Selected candidates are first put through a training session for a short period. He is usually sent to an academic staff college associated with the service to which he is allocated. The greatest thing about civil service is the job security. Special facilities include subsidised accommodation, telephone and transport facilities, medical benefits, leave travel concession, etc. After retirement, there are very good social welfare facilities. Last but not the least is the immense satisfaction one derives at being able to participate in the development process of the country.

PAY SCALE :

The Government of India has fixed salary grades for Civil Servants. Approximately the range of salaries drawn at various levels is as follows:

Junior Officers: Rs. 8000-275-13500
Senior Officers: Rs. 10650-325-15200
Junior Administrative Grade: Rs. 12,750-375-16,500
Selection Grade: Rs. 15,100-400-18,300
Additional Secretary: Rs. 22400-525-24500
Secretary/Cabinet Secretary: Rs. 26,000/30,000
(The above scales only provide an idea of the pay scales. Different branches of the service have different scales of pay.)

In addition to the salary civil servants receive various allowances such as Dearness Allowance, City compensatory Allowance, Leave Travel Allowance, Medical and subsidised housing.