An orientation programme on civil service examination
was conducted for second year PSEco students on Tuesday, 26 June 2018 during
3-4 pm. The facilitators were Mr Renjith and Mr Manjith from the Department of
Professional Studies.
Every year millions of Indians aspire to become part
of the most prestigious service offered by the Government of India. The process
is hard and life changing but is very fulfilling for the individual. The
Department of Professional Studies took up the initiative of making the
students aware of the various facets of Civil Service Examinations. The
representatives of the department gave us an overview of the steps involved in
leading up to the ‘Mother of all Exams’, which is the exam conducted by the
UPSC (Union Public Service Commission). UPSC is a constitutional body, which
takes care of the Civil Service Recruitments and are known for their
transparency and efficiency. The exam is based on meritocracy - where everyone
has a fair chance at acing the exam with their hard work and discipline. The
exam is conducted at 2 levels - The Preliminary exam and the Main Exam. The
paper assesses the individual’s aptitude in fields like economics, political
science, history, science, geography, mathematics and any one Indian language
of the individual’s choice.
The speaker emphasised on the importance of prelims.
It is the exam that filters in the potential candidates for the Main Exam. The
candidates who cleared the mains as well as interview are appointed into one of
the following posts - IAS, IPS, IFS officers and other listed services. Social
change is key in every society and the people in power are the ones who can
bring about the change through the resources available to them because normal
people are in positions of power and they are better able to cater to the needs
of the general public because of their understanding of ground reality. Job
security is one of the biggest motivating factors for people to choose this
field. The speaker also opined that the scope of career growth in state
administration services are limited when compared to the offerings of the
centre. UPSC has a multidisciplinary approach to this exam and therefore the
candidates who appear for this exam are well equipped to face the challenges of
other competitive exams like the ones offered by the Reserve Bank of India,
Staff Selection Commission, The Ministry of Finance and others. The speaker
also provided the details about the career opportunities relating to economics
for our benefit.
The session ended with the contact details of the
speaker and about the open elective course that they are offering to the
students. The speakers (Mr. Renjith and Mr Manjith) also gave us a glimpse of
the questions that appear in the civil service exams. Overall it was a very
informative and enriching experience.
