The Civil Services originated in India after the expansion of the East India Company’s operations in India. The objective was to provide a strong administrative structure, further the practices followed by citizens were very different; the role of the collector was to collect land revenue and slowly as the Raj expanded and the functions of East India Company expanded, they kept on adding the roles of the collector.
Thereafter the Country sought of these services to be applied pan India and to add a large no of functions the government exercised more than just generating revenues like the administration, safety to be ensured, enforcement of law and order, etc.
As a Civil Servant, you have an opportunity to serve a no. of times more than the rest who think why we cannot change the decisions of the government. Hence, these services give you an opportunity. You learn about the government, how it works, understand the policy, look at the grievances and pains and do something for their upliftment.
You also learn about Government Accounts and procedure of expenditure of the government; what all revenues are raised by the government are to be deposited in the respective funds. Only a Body can be utilize those fund, which will be passed/authorized by the Parliament. Accounts to certain Principals to be spent on authorized grounds in the interest of public. The CAG checks and prepares the report. How Railways are operated and how the accounts for railways are managed. How Civil wing for defense services are managed. Indian police service are working all across the country to ensure normal peace and to ensure public order is maintained. The officers of Income Tax or Customs in collection of taxes. When you are a member of these services you can do all these kind of assessments. There are certain services which handles the relations with different countries of sensitive nature including countries like Pakistan and other neighbors and which help us in bringing more foreign direct investment leading India to grow at a better rate.
The Civil Examination is a three-stage examination; first is the Preliminary, second is the Mains and the third is the Interview. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the exam. Any graduate above the age of 21 can appear for the exam. Around 3.5 – 4 lakh students appear for the Preliminary, out of them 3 – 4 % students i.e. 10 – 12 K appear for the Mains out of them 2,500 – 3,000 students appear for the Interview and out of these 2,500 – 3,000 students the last merit list of about 1,000 students is prepared. There are 20 – 25 services. All India services include services like IAS and IPS. Group A services include IRS, Indian Accounts, Postal Services, Railway Services and there are some Group B services as well. The duration of the entire stages of the exam is one year. The preliminary is in June, the Mains in October and Interviews in April/May. If a candidate is preparing for the Civil Services Exam, he should start 10 – 12 months prior to the Preliminary Exam. There are four attempts for the General Category; for Reserved Category there are more no. of attempts. There has been a relaxation in the age limit from 30 to 32 for General Category and up to 35 for Reserved Category. In Preliminary exam CSAT, there is one General Studies paper and one Aptitude paper, which is common for all aspirants. Once you clear the preliminary, there are four papers in Mains, which are again uniform across the board. Then you have to select one optional paper out of two; for Chartered Accountants, it can be Commercial Accounts. Apart from that, you need to qualify two language papers; for normal students, the language papers are English and Hindi and for the rest English is compulsory and except Hindi, you can choose any other language. Then there is one Essay paper, General Studies and one optional paper. The Interview is for about 275 marks. After this, the final merit list is prepared. The top preferences in the exam are the IAS and the IPS. This is the usual trend adopted by the aspirants. The interviews are conducted in the main building of UPSC of the respective state.
It has been seen that the students consider this examination as a very tough examination. Out of these 3 – 4 lakh students, only 80 K to 1 lakh students are serious and will be appearing in the exam. Out of these 1-lakh students, 10 to 15 K students pass the exam that makes around 10 to 15% success rate in the Preliminary, which is much better than the CA Final result. Statistically, it is not that tough. As far as the course curriculum is concerned CA’s are expert in Finance and Accounts they have an idea about the economic scenario of the Country. In the Preliminary, you have an Aptitude paper, which is Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, which is quite easy for a CA, so one of the paper is taken care of in the initial stage. In GS you have 4 papers out of which one is Economics, one deals with the Quality Governance and the Legal Structure that governs the Country. As CA’s, we read a lot of law and we have an aptitude to read the law so that paper is also taken care of. So you have an initial advantage in two papers. One paper has to be selected out of two; we have Commerce and Accountancy so that paper is also manageable. As a CA, we score the max. as we have a grip over this exam.
The fear factor is GS. NCERT is easy to read and initially gets you to the GS portion to have an overall background. Should update yourself with the Current Events happening around by in-depth reading of the newspapers like the Hindu and the Indian Express.
As a Civil Servant, you are dealing with the lives of the citizens of India and for that, you need to understand the history of the County and finally what is happening in their daily lives. Should also read an economic survey of India, it also explains a large no. of government schemes and what are its logical aspects. A basic idea of economy. You have to plan out a large amount of syllabus.
There are two structures State and Central. We start as a trainee in the state. There is a 3 month course from Lal Bhadur Shantri Academy. There is another capsule after 2 months of ground surfing around the country to understand its geography, the way people live, the culture they practice. Then you are staying for about a year in a district. On your come back to the academy, you share your experience and then you placed to the area as a Sub Magistrate. He (Sub Magistrate) has a small part under his jurisdiction, is supposed to co-ordinate, and ensure law & order. This is how he actually starts. For a year or two he works as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate called the Sub-Collector and he graduates to becoming a CEO of a Zilla Parishad or is some states its also called as the Chief Government Officer. Once he has handled the Revenue & Land Reforms and Law & Order is handled to the final aspect of development that includes laying down of roads, canals, providing houses to the poor, scholarships to students, women support old age support and then finally you become a Collector and handle the aspects of administration. From Under Secretary, you become Secretary. You can take implementation decisions. You become a Principal Secretary assisting the concerned Minister. You are actually coordinating like a Magistrate after 9 years of service. After completing 14 years of service you become a Director. Finally after 17 years, you are empaneled to take decisions like what will be the policy. Basically you are molding the country’s policy. After that you can become additional secretary.
The IPS officers start as Sub Divisional Police Officer. After 1 – 2 years, you graduate as SP of different Departments. After 4 – 6 years, you graduate to become DIG then IG (Secretary IAS) then they graduate to become ATG. After ATG there are DGP’s amongst them in to handle the police infrastructure. DGP police. This is the general setup of IPS.
CA Coaching is not compulsory but helps for giving the exams. There are no exemptions in these papers as in the case of CA exams. There is low remuneration in the start; there a few benefits available like a house (Government Quarter), HRA, DA. Still at the end doing something positive for the country for which, a civil servant works where a new CA can contribute, as these services are the Backbone of administration of the Country would lead to a sense of satisfaction, which an enlightened citizen of the country would definitely dream of.
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