Trade

ITS created was as a special cadre in 1965 under the Group A Civil service to handle India’s International Trade and Commerce.

 

The cadre controlling authority of ITS lies to Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT) , under the Ministry of Commerce.

 

The department is functionally organized in the following 9 division:

1. International Trade Policy Division
2. Foreign Trade Territorial Division
3. Export Products Division
4. Export Industries Division
5. Export Service Division
6. Economic Division
7. Administration & General Service Division
8. Finance Division
9. Supply Division

 

 

ITS Exam

The UPSC generally releases the notification 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 the online by visiting the official website of UPSC.

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

 

Eligibility Criteria : ITS Exam

 

 

1.Nationality

• Candidate must be a citizen of India
• Candidate must be a citizen of Nepal or a subject of Bhutan.
• Candidate must be a Tibetan refugee who came to India before January 1, 1962 for settling permanently in India.
• Candidate 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 

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

 

3.Age Limit & Number of Attempts 

A candidate should be a minimum of 21 years and 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 Millitary Service as on 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

 

ITS Officer: Roles & Responsibility

• Policy formulation for the International trade
• Trade policy implementation
• Export promotion through various channels and initiatives.
• Responsible for International trade Negotiations

 

Career Graph of ITS Officer

The highest position, an ITS officer can desire for is the rank of Director -General of Foreign Trade. The following is the career path of an ITS Officer :

• Foundational Training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBNAA), Mussoorie, Uttarakhand.
• Professional Training at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi.

 

The indicative hierarchy is given below (Top to Below) 

• Director-General of Foreign Trade/Senior Development Commissioner, Special Economic Zone.
• Additional Director-General of Foreign Trade/Development Commissioner, Special Economic Zone/Trade Advisor.
• Joint Director-General of Foreign Trade/Director
• Deputy Director-General of Foreign Trade/Under Secretary.
• Assistant Director-General of Foreign Trade

 

ITS EXAM PATTERN

UPSC conducts exam in three level as mentioned below.  The candidate has to clear all the 3 exam 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 Question)
• The question papers are set in Hindi and English language.
• Blind candidate gets an additional 20 minutes of time for both the paper.
• Candidate appearing in the preliminary test must qualify the cut off score to get oneself 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 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 are covered in the General Studies in Main Exam are 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 be opted 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 qualify the mains exam are called for the interview process. This is the last and final stage of the recruitment cycle before the final 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 consist of competent panelist, who would judge the candidature on 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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