Indian Foreign Services

IFS Exam stands for Indian Foreign Services. It is one of the central civil services of the Government of India. IFS  members represent the country in international territory.

 

 

 

IFS Exam

Every year, UPSC conducts the Civil Service Examination(CSE) for more than 24 services, such as IAS and IPS  by shortlisting the candidates. More than nine lakh candidates register for the UPSC exam and almost five lakh candidates appear for the examination. The selection process goes through several screenings starting with the preliminary exam, main examination, and interview.

 

Selection is a year-long process that starts in the month of June and ends in April, and the final list comes in the month of May.

Name of the Exam	Civil Service Examination
Organizing Body	Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
Exam Level	National
Exam Mode	Paper and Pen-based( Offline)
Number of Services	24
Number of Attempts	7 times
Number of Registrations	Approx. 9Lakh
Admit Card	Online
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/

 

IFS EXAM Dates

The UPSC generally releasees the date of the Civil Services 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
IFS- Online Application Form	February to March
IFS- Preliminary Admit Card	2nd Week of May
IFS- Preliminary Exam	October
IFS- Preliminary Result	November
IFS-Main Exam	January
IFS-Main Result	February
IFS-Interview	March to April
IFS-Final Result	May

 

Eligibility Criteria: IFS 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.
• Some of the skills required are Decision-making ability, Apt knowledge of current affairs and foreign countries, excellent communication skills, good leadership and analytical ability.

 

3. Age Limit & Number of Attempts

A candidate should be a minimum of 21 years and a maximum of 30 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. Candidate from the State of Jammu & Kashmir: Upto 5 years
5. Ex-servicemen and ECOs/SSCOs who have served at least 5 years in Military Service as on 1^st of August of the Notification Year: 5 years
6. Blind, Deaf-mute and physically handicapped person: 10 Years.

Category	Maximum Age Limit	No of Attempts
General	30 Years	07
Other Backwards Castes (OBC)	33 Years	09
Economically Weaker Section(EWS)	30 Years	07
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST)	35 Years	Till the age limit
Physically disabled candidates	40 Years	For General and OBS candidates = 9 For SC/ST Candidates = Till age limit

 

IFS Officer: Roles & Responsibility

• Representing India in its Embassies, High Commissions, Foreign countries and in multilateral organizations like UN.
• Responsible for dealing with the diplomats for trade, cultural relations of the country, and management of Indian missions abroad
• Responsible for framing the Government’s foreign policy.
• Promoting, nurturing and improving nation’s interest, friendship between India and the country where the officer is posted.
• Constantly updating the Ministry of External Affairs( MEA) Office, India with the recent and development and changes.

 

Career Graph of IAS Officer

The highest position, an IFS officer can desire for is the rank of Foreign Secretary of India. For abroad they can go up to the post of Ambassador/High Commissioner. The following is the career path of an IFS officer.

• The candidate selected for the IFS cadre will be sent for training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration( LBSNAA), Mussoorie.
• The probationer will be sent for focus training at Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi.
• After the completion of the above two training, the probationer will be sent for on-the-job training wherein they will be associated with the division of the Ministry of External Affairs for a period of 6 months.
• Post this they are assigned a Compulsory Foreign Language(CFL) lie Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, German, Spanish etc.
• Later posted as a Third Secretary (Language Trainee) in any Indian Mission abroad.
• After completing the proficiency test conducted by School of Foreign Language, Ministry of Defense will confirm them as an IFS officer. The entire journeys take around three years of time.

Post in Foreign Country	Post in India
Attache/ Third Secretary	Under Secretary
First/Second Secretary	Under Secretary
First Secretary	Deputy  Secretary
Director	Counselor Director
Minister/DCM Ambassador	Joint Secretary
Ambassador/High Commissioner	Additional  Secretary
Ambassador/High Commissioner	Secretary

 

IFS EXAM PATTERN

UPSC conducts exam in three levels 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 consist 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 papers.
• 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.
• 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 language : 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 results are declared. The maximum marks 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 panelist, who would judge the candidature on the following grounds :

• Mental Attentiveness
• Critical power of understanding
• Clear and Logical Interpretation
• Balance of Judgement
• Ability of social solidarity and leadership
• Intellectual and virtuous integrity

 

 

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