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Government jobs are one of the most opted job roles for the generation of today. And among them, one of the most lucrative and toughest jobs to crack in our country is that of an IAS officer. The work role of an IAS officer is not something that many people know of. Additionally, most citizens in our country usually remain confused with the uncanny resemblance between IAS and IPS posts. While the IAS recruitment takes place for carrying out an array of responsibilities towards the nation as a whole, IPS, on the other hand, maintains law and order in the country or states to be more precise.

The selection criteria of IAS and IPS are rigorous, and aspiring candidates have to get through the UPSC exams.

What are UPSC Exams? What Is The Selection Criteria?

UPSC usually stands for Union Public Service Commission. The whole idea of recruiting a candidate for the post of IAS through the UPSC is done for the following reasons.

At first, the exam shortlists candidates with the right potential and the ability to work diligently under India’s government.

Secondly, it also checks their credibility to perform the role. Every year, in a country like India, 100,000+ aspirants appear for the IAS exams through UPSC. The average amount of time allocated for the review is 24 hours, in which candidates have to prove their mettle. The tests conducted are scrutinized under the surveillance of the central and state government of India.

The limitation of UPSC exams is not for selection only IAS and IPS aspirants. It recruits candidates for various fields like Armed Forces, Central Services, and the Indian Foreign Service and Indian Revenue Service.

Apart from sourcing the candidates through All India Tests, UPSC also acts as the de-facto platform to take action in matters related to promotion, disciplinary matters, and transfer of a civil servant.

Read Also: The Powers, and Responsibilities of the IAS Officers in Civil Services

The selection criteria of the UPSC Civil Service Exams takes place in the below-mentioned steps:

• The first set of the exam is known as the Preliminary exam. The exam contains two papers in total, which contain mostly objective type questions for the aspiring candidates.
• Candidates will first have to appear for the GS-paper 1 with a total of 100 objective questions with two marks each. Questions are sourced from different sectors like Environment geography, history, civics, the Indian economy, etc.
• The second paper for which the candidates appear is the CSAT paper. The paper has 80 questions, which include comprehension, reasoning, and aptitude. The total qualifying criteria and cut off score for the paper is 33% minimum.

Other than these candidates also have to appear for the mains exams. Those candidates who achieve the minimum qualification marks are eligible for the second round of mains exam.

• The main exams for UPSC consist of 9 papers, out of which 2 are language papers. Besides, the remaining 7 papers are evaluated one by one for determining if the candidate is selected for the last round of interviews.
• The last round of mains examination for UPSC is personality tests interview.

The whole personality test interview objective is to access the suitability of the candidate for the overall job role to which he/she has applied.

Read Also: Life, Role and Responsibilities of an IAS Officer

What Is Salary Structure Of IAS Officer?

The basic salary of an IAS Rs 56,100 that includes TA, DA, and HRA, and the whole breakup of the salary structure are as below:

As mentioned above, the table is the complete breakdown of the salary structure of an IAS officer. This is along with the total incorporation to the dearness allowance, which at the time of joining is 0% only. With the gradual increase in the number of job years, the dearness allowance also sees an upsurge eventually.

Also, almost all the IAS officers start off with the same salary at the same level, and then with the increase in the job role, promotion, and the number of years, the salary is revised accordingly. The basic hike that an IAS officer gets at the entry-level is only 3%.

For the cabinet secretary level, the salary, however, is fixed. There is also an increment in the dearness allowance levels by 0-14%.

Read Also: IAS Exam Eligibility

Why UPSC Is A Tough Exam?

There are about more than lakhs of candidates every year that harbors a dream of becoming an IAS officer. Although very few of them are only successful, this does not deter candidates from appearing for the Civil Service Examinations.

IAS exams are one of the toughest examinations to be conducted in the whole of India. The reason for this strictness and tough measurements is for sourcing the right candidates from the pool of aspirants. It is no joke to join the highest level of Civil Service in a country with crores of population.

With big posts comes more significant responsibility, and hence the overall examination standards are kept strict about grinding the candidates and taking out the best performance from them. Any candidate who clears all the levels of the UPSC exams is then given the responsibility to administer their responsibilities towards the nation.

It means they have to toil hard day and night, get involved in the minute decisions to a higher level of tasks, take care of the area or district allotted to them, and finally have a call in all essential matters of the state.

This makes the post one of the toughest cracks, and thus most candidates have to attempt the exam again and again to make their distant goal a fully accomplished dream.