GOVT

Indian Defence Accounts Service Exam (IDAS) is a gazette Central Civil Service of Government of India under the cadre controlling authority of the Ministry of Defence. This is one of the oldest departments of the government of India.

 

It was established to provide Financial Advice, accounts, and audit service to the following :

1. Ordnance Factories
2. Indian Armed Forces- Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard
3. Military Engineer Services
4. Border Roads Organization
5. Defence Research and Development Organization

 

IDAS exam is an all-India examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

 

IDAS EXAM 

The UPSC generally releasees the notification of the Examinations notification in the month of February. Aspirants willing to appear for this All Indian Services along with other services can apply online by visiting the official website of UPSC.

Notification	Month
Civil Service Examination Advertisement	February
IDAS- Online Application Form	February to March
IDAS- Preliminary Admit Card	2nd Week of May
IDAS- Preliminary Exam	October
IDAS- Preliminary Result	November
IDAS-Main Exam	January
IDAS-Main Result	February
IDAS-Interview	March to April
IDAS-Final Result	May

 

Eligibility Criteria: IDAS Exam

 

 

1. Nationality

• Candidates must be a citizen of India
• Candidates must be a citizen of Nepal or a subject of Bhutan.
• Candidates must be Tibetan refugees who came to India before January 1, 1962, for settling permanently in India.
• Candidates must a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Burma, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Myanmar, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Vietnam, Zaire with the motive to settle permanently in India.

 

2. Educational Qualification 

• Candidates must hold any Bachelor’s degree from any of the recognized universities. There is no minimum percentage required for graduation.
• Candidates who have appeared for the qualifying exam and are awaiting results are also eligible.
• Candidates with professional and technical qualifications by recognized universities or their equivalent are also eligible to apply.

3. Age Limit & Number of Attempts 

A candidate should be a minimum of 21 years and a maximum of 32 years to appear for the Civil Service Examination. The maximum age mentioned above is relaxable for the following candidates :

1. Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST): 5 years
2. Other Backward Classes(OBC) : 3 Years
3. Defence Service Personnel : 3 years
4. Ex-servicemen and ECOs/SSCOs who have served at least 5 years in Military Service as of 1^st of August of the Notification Year: 5 years
5. Blind, Deaf-mute and physically handicapped person: 10 Years.

Category	Maximum Age Limit	No of Attempts
General	32 Years	06
Other Backwards Castes (OBC)	35 Years	09
Economically Weaker Section(EWS)	32 Years	06
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST)	37 Years	Till the age limit
Physically disabled candidates	42 Years	For General and OBS candidates = 9 For SC/ST Candidates = Till age limit

 

IDAS Officer: Roles & Responsibility

• IDAS Officers are responsible for maintaining the complete accounts of the Defence Services.
• IDAS Officer also manages the biggest budget allocation of the government of India that is the budget of Defence forces.
• IDAS officers also provide financial advice, payment, and internal auditing and accounting functions to the Armed forces, Defence Research and Development, Ordnance Factories, Border Road Organisation, Canteen Stores Department, and other allied organizations.

 

Career Graph of IDAS Officer

The highest position an IDAS officer can desire is The Controller General of Defence Accounts(CGDA). They Gi through the following training :

• Initial training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBNAA), Mussoorie.
• The next training will be at CENTRAD, New Delhi.
• The next training is at the National Institute of Financial Management, Faridabad.
• Final training is conducted in the National Academy of Defence Financial Management, Pune.

 

The indicative hierarchy is given below (Top to Below)

• Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA)
• Additional CDDA
• Principal Controller of Defence Accounts
• Joint CGDA
• Senior Deputy CGDA
• Deputy CGDA
• Senior ACGDA
• Assistant Controller General of Defence Accounts (ACGDA)

 

IDAS EXAM PATTERN

UPSC conducts exams in three-level as mentioned below.  The candidate has to clear all the 3 exams successfully to get the offer letter from Union Public Service Commission( UPSC)

1. Preliminary Test
2. Main Exam
3. Interview.

 

Stage One-Preliminary Test (400 Marks) 

• The Preliminary Exam consists of GS (General Studies) & CSAT( Civil Service Aptitude Test).
• Both the papers are objective type (Multiple Choice Questions)
• The question papers are set in Hindi and English language.
• Blind candidate gets an additional 20 minutes of time for both paper.
• Candidates appearing in the preliminary test must qualify for the cut-off score to get themselves eligible for the mains exam.
• There is a negative marking associated with the question asked in the exam.

Paper	Type	Number of Questions	Total Marks	Negative Marking	Duration
General Studies I	Objective( MCQ)	100	200	Yes	2 Hours
General Studies II (CSAT)	Objective( MCQ)	80	200	Yes	2 Hours

 

Stage Two-Main Examination (2025 Marks)

• Candidates who qualify for the preliminary test are called for the Main Exam.
• Main exam consists of 9 papers.
• Paper A & B are qualifying in nature (Highlighted below)
• The candidate needs to obtain at least 25% in each of the Paper I to Paper VII to be given weightage to the Main Exam
• Paper A is not compulsory for the candidate belonging to the State of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim as well as the candidate from hearing impairment provided the fact that they have been exempted from such  2^nd or 3^rd language courses from their board or university.
• The language paper consists of the languages included in the 8^th schedule of the Constitution.
• All the paper is bilingual – Hindi & English except for the language papers.

 

The written exam consists of the following papers

Paper	Subject	Type	Duration	Total Marks
Paper A	One of the Indian Language	Descriptive	3 Hours	300
Paper B	English	Descriptive	3 Hours	300
Paper I	Essay	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Paper II	General Studies I	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Paper III	General Studies II	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Paper IV	General Studies III	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Paper V	General Studies IV	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Paper VI	Optional I	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Paper VII	Optional II	Descriptive	3 Hours	250
Sub Total Marks				1750
Interview Marks				275
Grand Total Marks				2025

 

The subject which is covered in the General Studies in Main Exam is mentioned below 

General Studies I	General Studies II	General Studies III	General Studies IV
Indian Heritage and Culture	Governance	Technology	Ethics
History and Geography of the World	Constitution	Economic Development	Integrity
Society	Polity	Bio-Diversity	Aptitude
	Social Justice	Environment
	International Relations	Security and Disaster Management

 

The list of the Optional Paper VI and VII of the Main Exam is enumerated below

Agriculture	Chemistry	History	Geography	Mathematics
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science	Political Science and International Relations	Mechanical Engineering	Commerce and Accountancy	Electrical Engineering
Anthropology	Psychology	Statistics	Physics	Economics
Botany	Sociology	Law	Medical Science	Geology
Zoology	Philosophy	Civil Engineering	Public Administration	Management
Literature can opt from any of the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit,  Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and English.

 

Stage Three- Interview (275 Marks )

The candidate who qualifies for the mains exam is called for the interview process. This is the last and final stage of the recruitment cycle before the final results are declared. The maximum mark in the interview is 275 thus accruing the total marks in the merit list to be 2025.

 

UPSC board takes the interview which consists of the competent panelists, who would judge the candidature on the following ground :

• Mental Attentiveness
• Critical power of assimilation
• Clear and Logical Interpretation
• Balance of Judgement
• Ability of social solidarity and leadership
• Intelligent curiosity

 

 

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