Indian Administrative Service

The IAS forms the backbone of the executive branch of the Indian government. The IAS full form is Indian Administrative Service. It performs various functions such as handling day to day administration of districts, states, and the union. It also handles policy-making duties and provides officers for various public bodies.

The IAS works with the legislative and judicial branches of the government to ensure the smooth functioning of our democracy. However, unlike other public offices such as the legislature, IAS officers are selected through competitive examinations and not through elections. As they form the permanent bureaucracy of the country, they are expected to be proficient in many areas of administration as well as possess reasonably good academic skills.

The Union Public Service Commission conducts the examinations for selection of these officers.

There are multiple strategies that one can employ to clear this examination, however, the best have these factors in common:

● Familiarity with the UPSC syllabus: This enables aspirants to select the best study material available and not waste time on peripheral concepts.

● Disciplined Approach: This helps maintain the tempo of preparation. The UPSC exam process is a long drawn out process which takes up almost one year, so not losing sight of the goal requires discipline.

● Consistency: This sets apart successful candidates. The efforts put into preparation should be consistent. If studied in fits and starts, the UPSC syllabus can become confusing as concepts learned earlier would have been forgotten and have to be relearned.

● Focus: Candidates should refrain from paying attention to non-issues while studying current affairs for this exam. The commission asks questions related to certain developments which are relevant to the country’s administration. The rest should be ignored. Similarly, focus on only concepts covered in the syllabus should be maintained for success.

The UPSC syllabus reflects the complexity of tasks that an IAS officer has to perform while in service. Since many people appear for this exam, the competition has gotten tougher over the years. One can learn from various toppers who have successfully cleared the exam and earned this coveted position. This is summed up nicely by the story of Saumya Sharma, who secured rank 9 in the UPSC exam while battling her own problems. You can listen to her story here: