HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
- Civil Servants for the East India Company used to be nominated by the Directors of the Company and thereafter trained at Haileybury College in London and then sent to India.
- Following Lord Macaulay’s Report of the Select Committee of British Parliament, the concept of a merit based modern Civil Service in India was introduced in 1854.
- The Report recommended that patronage based system of East India Company should be replaced by a permanent Civil Service based on a merit based system with entry through competitive examinations.
- For this purpose, a Civil Service Commission was setup in 1854 in London and competitive examinations were started in 1855.
- Initially, the examinations for Indian Civil Service were conducted only in London. Maximum age was 23 years and minimum age was 18 years.
- The syllabus was designed such that European Classics had a predominant share of marks.
- All this made it difficult for Indian candidates.
- Nevertheless, in 1864, the first Indian, Shri Satyendranath Tagore brother of Shri Rabindaranath Tagore succeeded.
- Throughout the next 50 years, Indians petitioned for simultaneous examinations to be held in India without success because the British Government did not want many Indians to succeed and enter the ICS.
- It was only after the First World War and the Montagu Chelmsford reforms that this was agreed to.
- From 1922 onwards the Indian Civil Service Examination began to be held in India also, first in Allahabad and later in Delhi with the setting up of the Federal Public Service Commission.
- The Examination in London continued to be conducted by the Civil Service Commission.
Strategy
To assist the aspirants to frame an accurate and separate strategy and plan at every level of examination, i.e., preliminary,, main and Interviews.
Our Mission
Understand the UPSC Syllabus
Know the UPSC Exam Pattern
Go through the UPSC previous years’ question papers
Know the right sources to refer
It is one of the most difficult competitive examinations in India. A single attempt can take two complete years of preparation – one year before the prelims and one year from prelims to interview. On average, 900,000 to 1,000,000 candidates apply every year and the number of candidates sitting in the preliminary examination is approximately 550,000.
IAS Success Stories of Average Students
“ANSAR SHEIKH”-
- Ansar is the son of Yonus Shaikh Ahmad, an autorickshaw driver from Jalna’s Shelgaon village in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
- His mother worked in fields.
- His younger brother, Anees dropped out of school in standard VII. Anees worked in a garage to support the family and help his brother prepare for the IAS exam.
- Ansar worked 12 hours a day for three years to achieve his IAS dream.
- His success is especially commendable counting the fact that education wasn’t a priority in his family.
- In his own words Ansar describes his domestic situation, “Education has never been a watchword in my family. My father, a rickshaw driver, has three wives. My mother is the second wife. My younger brother dropped out of school and my two sisters were married off at an early age. When I told them that I had cleared the UPSC and in all likelihood will be an IAS officer, they were stunned shocked.”
- Even though Ansar’s large family struggled to make ends meet, he remained a bright student throughout.
- He had secured 91% in his X board exams (SSC Board).
- He has a degree in political science from Fergusson College, Pune. He secured 73 percent in his graduation.
- Ansar had attended a private IAS coaching class for his UPSC civil services preparation.
- His family had to bear great expenses in this regard but were more than delighted when they got the result they all had awaited.
- He thanked Rahul Pandve, his 30-year-old teacher for giving him guidance and support. (Pandve had also cleared the UPSC civil services exam that year with AIR 200)
“Govind Jaiswal”
It was a 11 year old small kid, Govind, who went to play with his rich and respected friend. He went to his house where a minutes later, he was thrown out insulted and disgraced.
An educated man in his friend’s house shouted at him, “How dare you come here and mix with my son; don’t you know who you are and where you belong?” This was not the only thing that gave a spark to his and his father’s dreams of making him as an IAS. Instead there were many more incidents that pushed him to become an IAS.
Comments and taunts like ‘Your father’s one rickshaw can become two or three tomorrow with your initiation’, ‘However much you study, you will still be a rickshaw-puller’, ‘What is your worth? You can only take your father’s business a bit further’ and many more became very usual for him, which he ignored and sticked to the aim of becoming an IAS.Once Govind received a comment, ‘Either you request your father to change his profession or you become big’ that touched him. He was very much sure that nothing could change his father’s profession, so he chose to become ’big’.
Govind worked so hard that he not only cleared the exam at first attempt, but he also denied the fact that getting a remarkable success needs a privileged background or a metro city’s schooling.
Core Values
According to Mahatma Gandhi -Simplicity, Minimalism, Satyagraha, Sarvodaya, Secularism, Ahimsa, Non-Violence, Truth, Forgiveness, Self-Sufficiency, Dignity of labour etc.
According to Jawaharlal Democracy institution building, consensus building, socialism, secularism, self-determination, internationalism etc.
- High-quality standards
- Self-belief
- Determination