The Position, The Passion, The Salary and more than that, an opportunity to serve the country – you can get all of the above if you are selected for Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Despite having other lucrative career options, the charm and charisma of becoming an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) Officer has not even faded slightly. Even though it is a very difficult path, confidence to work hard and true belief in you is the key for success. Indian Administrative Services exam is like a battle to conquer andthe never say die attitude is a must. Planned study strategies and disciplined routine can help you in succeeding in this exam.

What is Indian Administrative Services (IAS)?

Government makes policies for the welfare of their people and nation. For the execution of these policies, they need a bunch of honest, intellectual, brave, strong and duty bound people. The role of an IAS officer is to see the administrative matters of the government. The government has made a very strong refining process to get such strong individuals. This is known as Indian Administrative Services Exams.

For the government of India, IAS is the leading administrative civil services examination. With the permanent bureaucracy in India, IAS forms an inextricable part of the executive branch in the government of India, providing without interruption and neutrality to the administration. IAS is also an extremely competitive exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. Every year, lakhs of candidates try their luck but only few selected ones get the opportunity to fill in the shoes of an IAS officer. In 2012, approximately 5,00,000 candidates applied for this exam of which only 170 were finally recruited as IAS officers.

Eligibility: The basic qualification for giving Indian Civil Service exam is the bachelor’s degree in any field. Even those who have professional degrees in medicine or engineering can appear for the exam.

The age of the candidate to be eligible to appear for these exams is within 21 years and 30 years. However, the applicants should be an Indian national. Reserved category aspirants have exemption of 5 years in their age. For general category, candidates can attempt four times and OBC candidates can attempt seven times while SC/S T candidates have no limits.

Exam Format: The civil service exam is a three-stage process, which would take a year to complete. First is preliminary exam, consisting of two paper, which will test the candidate’s knowledge in economics, politics, history, geography, environment, awareness of current affairs, reading comprehension, logical reasoning and basic numeric. People who cleared first stage are eligible to appear in second level or main exams. In which they have to write nine papers based on Indian and world history, constitutional law, International relations and multilateral bodies, world geography and administrative ethics. Those who succeed in main exam would be qualified for the interview, which would be taken by Union Public Service Commission. A final list of recommended candidates will be sent to the government upon completion of the whole process.

After selection process through interview, candidates would be allocated to cadres, where they would be sent for training. At this time, they would be on probation and following which, they would be posted as per the government norms.

A civil servant is responsible for the law and order and general administration or in short overall development of their area. An IAS officer mainly handles daily affairs of the government including framing and implementation of policy in consultation with the minister-in-charge of the concerned ministry.

Supervision is must and for that, they travel to see whether the public funds are properly being utilized along with implementation of government policies. In case of any irregularities happens, they are answerable to the parliament and state legislature.

Officers at various levels like Joint Secretary and deputy secretary take part in the final shaping of policy. However, final decision would be taken with the mutual content of the concerned ministers or the cabinet depending upon the importance of issue. Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel has been remembered as the “Patron Saint” of Indian Civil Service for establishing the entire modern Indian Services.

Most of the IAS Officers start their careers at the sub division level of the state administration as a sub divisional magistrate. Maintaining the law and order along with general administration and development work are their duties and responsibilities for the areas where they get the posting.

The structure differs for different salary grades. Most importantly, this is a highly reputed job, as the people would be looking to these for the development and the every piece of the particulars is under their charge.

IAS is one of the prestigious jobs, which needs a person with strong will power, physical strength, mental preparation to take strong decisions, ablity to make the policies and situations for the public welfare.