Career In Civil Services

The Candidates applying for the examination should ensure that they fulfill all eligibility condition for admission to examination. Commission take up verification of eligibility conditions with reference to original documents only after the candidate has qualified for interview/Personality Test.

Educational Qualifications :

Graduates in any discipline from a recognised university. Candidates having professional and technical qualifications recognised by the government are also eligible.

• Candidates who have appeared at an examination the passing of which would render them educationally qualified for the Commission's examination but have not been informed of the results as also the candidates who intend to appear at such a qualifying examination will also be eligible for admission to the Preliminary Examination. All candidates who are declared qualified by the Commission for taking the Civil Services (Main) Examination will be required to produce proof of passing the requisite examination with their application for the Main Examination failing which such candidates will not be admitted to the Main Examination.
• In exceptional cases the Union Public Service Commission may treat a candidate who has not any of the foregoing qualifications as a qualified candidate provided that he has passed examination conducted by the other Institutions, the standard of which in the opinion of the Commission justifies his admission to the examination.
• Candidates who have passed the final professional M.B.B.S. or any other Medical Examination but have not completed their internship by the time of submission of their applications for the Civil Services (Main) Examination, will be provisionally admitted to the Examination provided they submit along with their application a copy of certificate from the concerned authority of the University/Institution that they had passed the requisite final professional medical examination. In such cases, the candidates will be required to produce at the time of their interview original Degree or a certificate from the concerned competent authority of the University/Institution that they had completed all requirements (including completion of internship) for the award of the Degree.

Nationality : 

• For the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, a candidate must be a citizen of India
• For other services, a candidate must be either :
  (a) a citizen of India, or
  (b) a subject of Nepal, or
  (c) a subject of Bhutan, or
  (d) a Tibetan refugee who came over to India with the intention of permanently settling in India. or
  (e) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Srilanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.

Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (b), (c), (d) and (e) shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.

Provided further that candidates belonging to categories (b), (c) and (d) above will not be eligible for appointment to the Indian Foreign Service.

A candidate in whose case a certificate of eligibility is necessary, may be admitted to the examination but the offer of appointment may be given only after the necessary eligibility certificate has been issued to him by the Government of India.

Age Limits :

(a) Candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years on the 1st August of the year in which examination is being held. 
(b) The upper age limit prescribed above will be relaxable:
   (i) upto a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe.
   (ii) upto a maximum of three years in the case of candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates.
   (iii) upto a maximum of five years if a candidate had ordinarily been domiciled in the State of Jammu & Kashmir during a particular period
   (iv) upto a maximum of three years in the case of Defence Services personnel disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof.
   (v) upto a maximum of five years in the case of ex-servicemen including Commissioned Officers and ECOs/SSCOs who have rendered at least five years Military Service as on the 1st August of the year in which examination is being held and have been released (i) on completion of assignment (including those whose assignment is due to be completed within one year from the 1st August of the year in which examination is being held) otherwise than by way of dismissal or discharge on account of misconduct or inefficiency, or (ii) on account of physical disability attributable to Military Service, or (iii) on invalidment.
   (vi) upto a maximum of five years in the case of ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years Military Service as on the 1st August of the year in which examination is being held and whose assignment has been extended beyond five years and in whose case the Ministry of Defence issues a certificate that they can apply for civil employment and that they will be released on three month's notice on selection from the date of receipt of offer of appointment.
   (vii) upto a maximum of 10 years in the case of blind, deaf-mute and Orthopaedically handicapped persons.

Personal Attributes : 

The aspiring candidates are expected to have keen interest in the General Studies and are supposed to have a good amount of interest in current affairs. Regular and detailed reading of a good national newspaper, a standard competition magazine and a basic book on general knowledge is the essential pre-requisite. Another important point is efficient time planning.

Physical Standards :

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Civil Services Examination.

Reservation will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Physically disabled categories in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government.

Number of Attempts:

Every candidate appearing at the Civil Services Examination, who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted four attempts at the examination.

Provided that this restriction on the number of attempts will not apply in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates who are otherwise eligible.

Provided further that the number of attempts permissible to candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes, who are otherwise eligible, shall be seven. This relaxation will be available to the candidates who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates.

Provided further that a Physically handicapped will get as many attempts as are available to other non-physically handicapped candidates of his or her community, subject to the General Category shall be eligible for seven attempts. The relaxation will be available to the physically handicapped candidates who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates.

Note:-

(i) An attempt at a Preliminary Examination shall be deemed to be an attempt at the Examination.
(ii) If a candidate actually appears in any one paper in the Preliminary Examination, he/she shall be deemed to have made an attempt at the Examination.
(iii) Notwithstanding the disqualification/cancellation of candidature, the fact of appearance of the candidate at the examination will count as an attempt.

Restrictions on applying for the examination :

A candidate who is appointed to the Indian Administrative Service or the Indian Foreign Service on the results of an earlier examination and continues to be a member of that service will not be eligible to compete at this examination.

In case such a candidate is appointed to the IAS/IFS after the Preliminary Examination of Civil Services Examination and he/she continues to be a member of that service, he/she shall not be eligible to appear in the Civil Services (Main) Examination notwithstanding his/her having qualified in the Preliminary Examination.

Also provided that if such a candidate is appointed to IAS/IFS after the commencement of the Civil Services (Main) Examination but before the result thereof and continues to be a member of that service, he/she shall not be considered for appointment to any service/post on the basis of the result of this examination viz. Civil Services Examination.

Exam Details : 

All India Combined Competitive Examination for the Civil Services conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) comprises of two successive stages:

1. Civil Services (Preliminary) Examinations (Objective Type) for the selection of candidates for Main Examination; and
2. Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various services and posts.

The Preliminary Examination is held in May/June and the Main Examination in October/November. One must begin preparations of the main exam along with preliminary exam. This is because there is little time for the Main exam if one waits for the results of the Preliminaries. A candidate is permitted 4 attempts at the examination. If a person appears in the Preliminary Exam or even appears in one paper, it is counted as an attempt.

Preliminary Examination will consist of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions). Paper I is of general studies (200marks) and paper II (200marks) is an aptitude test. The question papers are set in Hindi as well as in English. Each paper is of two hours duration. Blind candidates are allowed an extra time of 20 minutes for each paper. Preliminary Examination is meant to serve as a screening test only; the marks obtained by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit. Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in a year will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.

Main Examination is intended to assess the overall intellectual traits and depth of understanding of candidates rather than merely the range of their information and memory. It will consist of a written examination and an interview test. The written examination will consist of 9 papers of conventional essay type in the selected subjects for main examination. Each paper is of 3 hours duration. Blind candidates will, however be allowed an extra time of thirty minutes at each paper.

Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the language papers viz. Papers I and II above in any one of the languages in cluded in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution or in English. Candidates exercising the option to answer papers III to IX in any one of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in the language opted by them. The question papers other than language papers will be set both in Hindi and English.

Papers for main examination : 

Optional subjects for Main Examination : Optional Subjects for the main examination can be chosen from 25 subjects, and the literature of one of the 30 specified languages.

The subjects include : 
Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Anthropology,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.

Literature of one of the following languages: Arabic, Assamese, Bodo, Bengali, Dogri, Chinese, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Candidates will not be allowed to offer the following combinations of subjects :

• Political Science & International Relations and Public Administration
• Commerce & Accountancy and Management
• Anthropology and Sociology
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Agriculture and Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science
• Management and Public Administration
• Of the Engineering subjects, viz., Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering–not more than one subject.
• Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science and Medical Science

Notes :

1. The papers on Indian Languages and English will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature; the marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.
2. Evaluation of the papers, namely, 'Essay, General Studies' and 'Optional subjects' of all the candidates would be done simultaneously along with evaluation of their qualifying papers on 'Indian Languages' and 'English' but the papers on 'Essay', 'General Studies' and 'Optional Subjects' of only such candidates will be taken cognizance of as attain such minimum standard as may be fixed by the Commission at their discretion for the qualifying papers on 'Indian Language' and 'English' and, therefore, the marks in 'Essay', 'General Studies' and 'Optional Subjects' will not be disclosed to those candidates who fail to obtain such minimum qualifying standard in 'Indian Language' and 'English'
3. The paper-I on Indian Languages will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the North-Eastern States of Arunachanl Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and also for candidates hailing from the State of Sikkim.
4. For the Language papers, the script to be used by the candidates will be as : Assamese (Assamese); Bengali (Bengali); Bodo (Devanagari); Dogri (Devanagari); Gujarati (Gujarati); Hindi (Devanagari); Kannada (Kannada); Kashmiri (Persian); Konkani (Devanagari); Maithili (Devanagari); Malayam (Malayalam); Manipuri (Bengali); Marathi (Devanagari); Nepali (Devanagari); Oriya (Oriya); Punjabi (Gurmukhi); Sanskrit (Devanagari); Santhali (Devanagari or Olchiki); Sindhi (Devanagari or Arabic); Tamil (Tamil); Telugu (Telugu); Urdu (Persian)
   Note:- For Santhali language, question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.

Interview Test: (carry 300 marks with no minimum qualifying marks)

Candidates who obtain minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the Main Examination shall be summoned for an interview. It is usually conducted in the month of April/May every year. The candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of his career. He/ She will be asked questions on matters of general interest. The object of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a Board of competent and unbiased observers. The test is intended to judge the mental calibre of a candidate. In broad terms this is really an assessment of not only his intellectual qualities but also social traits and his interst in current affairs. Some of the qualities to be judged are mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgement, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity.

Marks thus obtained by the candidates in the Main Examination (written part as well as interview) would determine their final ranking. Candidates will be allotted to the various Services keeping in view their ranks in the examination and the preferences expressed by them for the various Services and posts.

There is also a medical test, especially rigid for IPS. Out of the final candidates selected top rankers are appointed as IAS officers. 

Once appointed, all probationary officers of the All India and Central Services undergo a compulsory foundation training.