How to Become an IAS Officer

UPSC civil services examination is one of the toughest examinations of India. Every year almost around 4 lakh students appear for the examination and only around thousands of them reach their goal. So, it can be clearly understood that it is not a matter of joke and it is pretty tough and tiresome journey for the UPSC aspirants to fulfil their target. So, this can be seen that it requires so much effort and hard work to make it happen.

Considering past few years trend, the aspirants placed within the rank of 90th are allotted the post of IAS officers. They head all the central and state government departments and work as people’s representatives.

So, if you have dreamt of becoming an IAS officer, you must be wanting to know how to become an IAS officer. We will describe it in this article, but before that let’s look into this:

What is the job of IAS officers?

  • Assisting in the ruling of the government of India without any political party affiliation.
  • Framing policies and implementing them to run the government smoothly.
  • Implementing policies along with reporting the feedback of implementation in the concerned ministry
  • A major role in maintaining law and order
  • Disbursements of funds in the district as well as revenue collection
  • Crisis management

The job profile says that they become District Magistrate, Collector, or Commissioner at district level. They may work at the level of State or Centre with the top-level IAS officers at the State Secretariats. Serving as head-of-Departments of various Public-Sector Undertakings is also their job.

Salary of an IAS officer:

  • The new 7th central pay commission has announced the basic pay of IAS officers is Rs. 56,100/-
  • The union cabinet secretary, being the topmost rank holder of all the IAS designations, receives a monthly payment of Rs. 250000/-
  • There are 18 levels in between and the payment also varies as per the designation.

Eligibility and other requirements:

This is needless to say that becoming an IAS officer is one of the most prestigious and desirable careers for anyone. Right from reputation to power and decent money everything can be achieved with this career.

So, the eligibility and requirements needed for this dream job include:

  • The aspirants must hold the graduation degree in any discipline from any recognized university
  • The candidate should own an Indian citizenship
  • In case the candidate has migrated from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc, he or she has to be of an Indian origin
  • The candidate should be of minimum 21 years of age and a maximum of 32 years of age
  • There is age relaxation for the backward candidates. The sc and st candidates get 5 years of age relaxation whereas the OBCs get 3 years
  • Ex-serviceman of commissioned personnel or defence service officers have five and three years of age relaxation respectively

Now, let’s discuss: How to become an IAS officer?

Syllabus & Pattern:

The aspirants need to qualify the Union Public Service Commission Civil Services Exam (CSE) conducted as a means to recruit civil servants to one of the 25 services. The 25 services include All India Services (IPS, IFoS and IAS), Central Services (IRS, Railways, etc) and Group B services.

This examination is one of the toughest examinations in the world and the examination is conducted in three phases that include:

  • Preliminary
  • Mains
  • Interview

If you want to crack the CSE examination for becoming an IAS officer, you have to cover every bit of the provided syllabus:

Preliminary:

  • Paper I: Indian national movement, Indian polity, economic and social development of India, geography and environment, current affairs etc.
  • Paper-II: mathematics, reasoning, numerical problems, analytical ability, reading comprehension etc.

Each of the paper carries 200 marks.

After clearing prelims, the candidate can appear for the mains.

  • Paper A: language test of 300 marks(any Indian modern language by choice)
  • Paper B: English test of 300 marks
  • Paper I: essay writing in any language of the candidate’s choice carrying 250 marks
  • Paper-II: general studies regarding Indian and world history, geography, culture and heritage, society( 250 marks)
  • Paper III: Indian polity and governance, international relations, social justice(250 marks)
  • Paper IV: Economics, environmental study, disaster management, internal security, science & technology (250 marks)
  • Paper V: ethics, integrity and aptitude (250 marks)
  • Paper VI: optional subject paper 1 (250 marks)
  • Paper VII: optional subject paper 2 (250 marks)

The qualified candidates are called for the interview that carries 275 marks.

Smart study plan and best reference books:

The syllabus is so wide and requires utmost attention and dedication to cover them up. So, the candidates must arrange a suitable time table for them and they must stick to that every day. And, the hard work always pays off. But the hard work cannot turn into smart work until and unless you are following the right book. Though there are tons of apps and websites guiding the students to perform better, it is still always a wise choice to have books to learn and for practising too.