Civil Services in India

The UPSC or Union Public Service Commission is the authorized and responsible government agency that conducts the Indian Civil Services examination along with the National Defense Service Examination and Combined Defense Service Examination along with the Naval Academy Examination of the country. The UPSC conducts the IAS Prelims along with the civil services main and the interview round to recruit able and efficient officials in the highest ranking posts in different ministries and departments of the Government of India. Apart from conducting the prelims and IAS Main examinations the UPSC is also recruit suitable candidates through direct selection and also advises the government regarding various types of recruitments and inter or intra departmental promotions and transfers
The IAS prelims
The IAS Prelims exams which is now referred to as CSAT or civil service aptitude test is conducted every year during the month of May or June and the format of the exam has also been changed from the year 2011. In the new format of Civil Services preliminary exam instead of a General Studies Paper and an optional paper the candidates now have answer one General Studies Paper along with a General Aptitude Paper and both the paper will carry equal marks. The marks obtained and ranking of any candidate in the preliminary exam is not only the eligibility criterion for the IAS Main but the score in the prelims also has a considerable role in the final ranking of the candidate.
The IAS Main exam
The IAS mains exams conducted by the UPSC is comprised of six different papers with a time limit of 3 hours for each paper. Candidates get very little time between the declaration of the IAS Prelims results and the IAS main examination and that is why candidates who expect to qualify the CSAT for the main exam are required to start their extensive preparation long before the results for the preliminary exams are out. The six papers that comprises the civil services main exam are
* Paper I - the Indian Language Paper and carries 300 marks.
* Paper II and Paper III are English and essay writing papers and carries 300 and 200 marks accordingly.
* Paper IV and V are the General Studies papers comprising 300 marks each.
* The candidates are required to select any two subjects for Paper VI to Paper IX and each of these two subjects will have two papers of 300 marks each.

But there are certain subject combinations that are not allowed and the candidates are required to be aware of that.