Director's Message to the Aspirants



Congratulations for your decision to pursue civil services as a career. You deserve kudos because civil services does not merely offer you yet another lucrative job for earning livelihood; it provides a great opportunity to realise your potentials, enjoy your assignments, have the satisfaction of serving the country, and eventually lead India.

The civil services -- IAS/ IPS/ IFS and other central services -- have fuelled dreams among several generations of Indians.  Indian bureaucracy and its senior bureaucrats have commanded respect and awe both within the country and abroad. No wonder they are widely perceived even today as the steel frame of Indian governance.

The government in a democracy like India is predominantly run by the high echelons of bureacrats, who form the core of its deliverers and think-tanks. They belong to various civil services like IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS,  IRTS among others and occupy senior-most roles as Secretaries, director-Generals, Commissioners, heads of the departments, Members and Chairpersons of important ministries, departments, PSUs, Corporations, Committees and Commissions of States and the Central Government.

In the face of changing global economic scenario, the nature of civil services too has undergone fundamental changes.  The processes of globalization and its resultant liberalization, privatization and other economic reforms have had an impact on policies relating to governance, administration, international relations, trade and other issues of national importance. Administration in India itself has undergone a paradigm shift – from being control and regulation-oriented to development and facilitation-oriented; from being state-friendly, it has become public-friendly. Under the present system, a typical District Collector/ Magistrate is no more an all-powerful controller and regulator, but a benevolent facilitator and promoter of public interests and welfare.  Accordingly, the role of a civil servant has undergone a vast change and the challenges before him have increased manifold. While traditionally the inherent prerequisite for a civil servant was that he should be a sincere, honest, dedicated, intelligent and law-abiding individual, the demands of the civil services have now increased. The new civil servant has to be brighter, pro-active, pro-change, more dynamic and techno-savvy than his predecessors.

In the recent years, civil services have begun to attract a wider pool of talent. A large number of professionals – led by engineers, IT & management professionals, doctors, lawyers and other meritorious students who could have got lucrative jobs with the corporate sector - have started appearing in the civil services exam. The main reason of their attraction is the balanced combination of status, power and money that the civil services offer to its members.

It is well-known that the civil services exam, through its various stages, tests a candidate’s suitability to the top-rung positions of Indian bureaucracy. A candidate is thus tested for his administrative traits -- mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgment, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity and also for his social traits.

While the above qualities can not be acquired overnight, a candidate has to nevertheless inculcate and acquire these qualities. During my close-to-two-decades of teaching and guiding civil services aspirants I learnt that the requisite administrative traits and qualities can be inculcated in the students’ personality through scientifically designed guidance and training. After years of research and analysis, my team succeeded in developing a course-structure that would ensure that students study the concerned subjects alongside developing the administrative qualities and soft-skills necessary to succeed in the civil services exam. Our guidance programmes emphasize on mind-power and skill-set development so that our students are trained to use their resources optimally and emerge victorious not only in this exam but in life’s every battle.

Finally, I would like to congratulate you on your decision to pursue a career in the civil services. At the same time, I would like to remind you of your duty as a responsible citizen of this great nation that you ought to enter the civil services with sincere and sacred intention of serving the people of India without any bias or favour. India is a land of vast resources, diverse population and huge potentials. It is also a society gripped with many contradictions. While a section of Indian society surges ahead with pride to merge with the developed world, a large part of India’s population suffers from hunger, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of clean drinking water, and lack of basic medical amenities. Remember these faces laden with suffering as you make up your mind to enter the civil services. You are not entering civil services to merely earn a living; you also will have to wipe the tears of the suffering millions, to heal their wounds and to help them lead a better life. I promise you all cooperation in this noble mission. I also welcome you to Chanakya IAS Academy, where your commitment and devotion will be integrated with our years of experience in guiding and navigating you to your dream successfully.

A.K. Mishra