Orientation Programme on Civil Service Examination

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.