Indian Police Service

Indian Police Service commonly known as IPS is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India. Indian Police Service (IPS)  came into existence in 1948 when the British-era Indian(Imperial_Polivce was replaced. IPS officer carries lots of responsibility and also enjoys many benefits and perks. \

 

The Ministry of Home Affairs is the controlling authority of the IPS.

 

 

 

IPS Exam 

The Indian Police Service examination is a part of the Civil Service Examination conducted every year by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

There are two modes of recruitment for the Indian Public Service (IPS)

 

1. Civil Service Examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission( UPSC)
2. Promotion by State Police Service Officers.

 

Every year, UPSC conducts the Civil Service Examination(CSE) for more than 24 services, such as IAS, IPS, and IFS, by shortlisting the candidates. More than nine lakh candidates registered for the IAS 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 Vacancies	Approx. 900
Number of Services	24
Number of Attempts	6 times
Number of Registrations	Approx. 9Lakh
Admit Card	Online
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/

 

UPSC IPS EXAM NOTIFICATION

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
IPS- Online Application Form	February to March
IPS- Preliminary Admit Card	2nd Week of May
IPS- Preliminary Exam	October
IPS- Preliminary Result	November
IPS-Main Exam	January
IPS-Main Result	February
IPS-Interview	March to April
IPS-Final Result	May

 

 

Eligibility Criteria: IPS 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: 5 years
4. Candidate from the State of Jammu & Kashmir: Upto max. 5 years
5. 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
6. 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

 

Physical Criteria 

The physical criteria of fulfilling the eligibility criteria of the IPS officer is as follows :

Minimum Height 

• Men : 165 cm
• Women : 150cm

 

Relaxable minimum height for candidates belonging to ST and other races like the Assamese, Garhwalias, Gorkhas, Kumaonis, Naga Tribes is 160 cm( Men) and 145cm (Women)

Minimum Chest Girth :

• Men : 84 cm
• Women: 79 cm

 

Myopia 

Should not exceed minus 4.00D ( including cylinder)

Hyper myopia

• Should not exceed 4.00D ( including cylinder)
• Near vision should be J1 and J2 respectively.
• Distant vision for a better eye should be 6/6 or 6/9
• Distant vision for the worse eye should be 6/12 or 6/9
• High-grade color vision required
• Binocular vision is required
• Spectacles are allowed.
• Squint is a disqualification

 

IPS Officer: Roles & Responsibility

The Indian Police Service comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs( MHA).  An IPS officer serves both the State and Centre and their primary responsibility is to maintain peace and security. Below are some of the major responsibilities of an IPS officer :

• Border responsibilities and duties by counter-terrorism and border policing.
• Maintain peace and order by prevention of crime, investigation, detection, and intelligence.
• Safety and security of VIP.
• Railway Policing
• Drug trafficking and Anti-smuggling
• Disaster management
• Top-level post in Indian Intelligence Agencies like CBI, R&AW, IB, CID
• Commanding Indian Federal Law Enforcement Agencies like Civil and Armed Police Forces in all Union Territories and States, and Central Armed Police Forces(CAPF) including Central Police Organisations (CPO) and Central Paramilitary Forces like BSF, ITBP, CRPF, NSG, CISF
• Serve as a head authority in policymaking in the Ministries and Department of State and Central Governments as well as in Public Sector Undertakings(PSU).
• Work closely with all other All-Indian Service, Indian Army, and Armed Forces.

 

Career Graph of IPS Officer

• The highest position, an IPS officer can desire is the rank of Director General of Police. The newly appointed IPS officer has to go through two years of training or a probationary period. Three months of the foundation course is the first part of the training which is common for all the new UPSC CSE recruits.
• After their training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, the IPS probationers go to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), Hyderabad.
• Apart from the above-mentioned training, they go through various indoor and outdoor exams.

Indoor Subjects	Marks	Outdoor Subjects	Marks
Information & Communication Technology	100	Fieldcraft Tactics and Map Reading	200
Indian Evidence Act,1872	100	Drill	100
Indian Penal Code,1860	100	Drill	80
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973	100	Physical Fitness	80
Police Leadership and Management	100	Equitation	40
Crime Prevention & Criminology	75	Unarmed Combat	30
Police in Modern India	75	Swimming	25
Investigation-I	75	Yoga	25
Investigation—II	75	First Aid & Ambulance Drill	20
Forensic Science	75
Maintenance of Public Peace and Order	75
Internal Security	75
Special Laws	50
Forensic Medicine	50

 

• Posted as Deputy Superintendent of Police
• Posted as Additional Superintendent of Police
• Posted as Senior Superintendent of Police
• Posted as Deputy Inspector General of Police
• Posted as Inspector General of Police
• Posted as Additional Director General of Police
• Director-General of Police

 

IPS 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 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.
• 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 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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