“I want to become a bureaucrat” tops the wish list of a lot of youngsters. And why not? Civil services is not just another job. You need lots of grit to crack the exams. You also need to know how to go about your studies and this is where www.civilserviceindia.com comes in handy. It is a no-frills site that offers information which is neatly categorised under various sub-heads, making navigation easy. Right from the list of services offered under the umbrella of UPSC to eligibility, application procedure, compensation and information on the UPSC exam centres — it is all there.

What is interesting about www.civilserviceindia.com is that the course syllabus for both the prelims and the mains, strategies and techniques for cracking the exam and question papers are given separately for each individual subject that one wants to take up for the exam. The site also provides addresses of various coaching centres and places where you can buy books. In fact, there’s special help in the form of addresses of coaching classes in different cities for backward/minority and financially needy students. Under the section, ‘study together for IAS’, an exhaustive list of students taking the exam is provided and surprisingly, even a student from Arizona, US, finds mention. This would be ideal for those interested in forming study groups and having company for those tough months leading up to the exam.

You can even download sample question papers for free at www.civilserviceindia.com. However, they could have put up the contacts of people who have successfully competed for the IAS to make the site even more helpful.

Shibani Chattopadhyay

shibani@abpmail.com