| Indian Administrative Service |
| Indian Police Service |
| Indian Foreign Service |
What greater honour than to be called upon to represent your country. An honour fit only for the best of the best. A career in the Indian Foreign Service gives you an opportunity to use your intelligence, creativity and commitment to the service of your nation in a demanding and dynamic field.
By Anshuman, IFS 2001 |
| Indian Revenue Service |
| Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise) |
| Indian Postal Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Intro:Indain Postal Service (IPS) is one of the Group A Central Civil Services, which has been constituted to man the officer cadre in the Department of Posts. There are about 550 officers in the IPS Cadre. Of these 70 are on deputation to other government departments (Central and State), PSUs, UPSC, Army Postal Service, APPTC Bangkok, and UPU Berne (Switzerland). About 30 are on training. Rest about 450 man the various posts in the Department controlling its about 150000 post offices, and about 600000 employees.
Carrier Progression and service details:
The above progression of the career is indicative only. The promotions are subject to availability of vacancies in that grade due to which promotions may be delayed by an year or two.
In the JTS and the STS grades one is usually allotted to a Postal Circle which is normally coterminous with a state. Thereafter, in subsequent grades, the officer can be posted in any part of India, mostly in bigger cities which is a headquarter of a Postal Region. There are 40 regions in the country.
The Indian Postal Service (IPS) offers an excellent opportunity to diversify ones knowledge and gives an enriching experience to the officer. As an IPS officer one gets to see all parts of the country and the world. There is also an unique opportunity available only for the IPS officers of getting into the Army through the Army Postal Service (APS). The APS is manned purely by IPS officers and functions as an integral part of the Indian Army. The IPS officers serving in the APS get the equivalent Army rank, pay and Uniform! No other civil service (not even IAS or Indian Police) provides such opportunity.
The IPS officer gets to administer a vast territory and about 1500 – 2000 personnel. This is a great and challenging responsibility than one has to shoulder from the first day of his job and even during probationary training. Hence over the time an IPS officer becomes an expert in Central Government rules and procedure and also an excellent HR manager. Moreover, the IPS provides excellent job variety with public interaction at cutting edge level, due which the IPS officers are preferred by other central govt ministries to man important positions on deputation.
The Department of Posts being an old organization has excellent infrastructure in terms of quarters, holiday homes in all parts of India. Even in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc the Department of Posts has its own quarters for its officers.
Induction Training: On the day of recruitment, after completion of Foundation course at Mussoorie probationer goes to Postal Staff College India at Ghaziabad for departmental training. During probation the officer is taught all the departmental nity-grity in the first phase, and then the officer is required to undergo training as Postmaster, Inspector, Manager Marketing, Assistant Superintendent of Post Offices, and at various capacity of operation and field supervision. Normally one circle is alloted at PSCI Ghaziabad, and the officers remains under the control of Director Postal Services and Postmaster General of the place. In the IInd phase of staff college administrative training is imparted apart from leadership training, management games, and personality development. On the first assignment you are posted either as Senior Superintendent of Post Offices incharge of a division or Senior Superintendent of Railway Mails. The SSP post is a field unit and is most challenging of all jobs. Not only you superintendent the postal function, but you are responsible for Personnel matters, training, meeting public, implementation of government policies e.t.c Being as Divisional head gives you complete independence of working where you enjoy travelling to deep down villages to meeting Big businessman to Media.The service and living condition is pretty good and you get all the facility as Government Officer.At around 2 years of service after probation you get promoted to Senior time scale, and then you will be posted only at big towns. But the real change from job occcus after completion of around 8 years of service when you become Junior Administrative Grade Officer and you are then posted as Director postal Service.
The job as Postal officer is multi-facet and the carrier prospect is faily stable and cadre is well managed from down to top. As the number of Postal officers are few, there is a strong faternity and seniors help throughout.
Organisation:
The Department of Posts comes under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and is headed by Secretary (Posts) to Govt. Of India as well as Director General , Department of Posts and the Chairman of the Postal Services Board.
In addition to the Postal Staff College, Ghaziabad, the department has Postal Training Centres at Saharanpur, Darbhanga, Vadodara, Mysore, Madurai, and Silchar, which trains the departmental officials in the non-officer cadre.
Last words…
The Indian Postal Service may not be as glamorous as the IAS, IFS or the Police Service; or it may not be as sought after as the IRS or Customs. It may not provide free journey tickets as is available in railway services. This is service which can provide immense satisfaction in your job, for it offers an excellent job variety which may be rivaled by only the IAS; it offers opportunity to travel and see places which is rivaled by the railways only; it offers a chance to run an important public utility service with responsibility at an very early stage of the career, which no other service offers; it offers a chance to serve in the Army for some time and then come back to Civil Service and then again go back to the Army, which even Army doesnot offer! However, most importantly in this service, one can afford to remain honest, upright and still grow in the service.
At the end of the day, when one bids adieu to the service one should have had a fulfilling and enriching experience over the years making the officer a mature and balanced human being, which the Indian Postal Service definitely offers to its officers. [Compiled and edited by Ganesh V Sawaleshwarkar, Indian Postal Service - Director of Postal Services, Kurnool Region, Andhra Pradesh.] |
| Indian Defence Estate Service |
The Indian Defence Estates Service is primarily responsible for the administration of the Cantonments, management of lands vested with Ministry of Defence, procurement of lands and buildings for Defence use through acquisition, hiring and requisitioning. The cadre strength of the service is about 140. The Director General, Defence Estates, New Delhi is the Head of the Department and holds a rank equivalent to the Secretary to the Govt. of India. The jurisdiction of the service is divided into six different Commands based on the Command strength structure of the Indian Army and each such Command has a Principal Director equivalent to the rank of an Additional Secretary to the Govt. of India and Directors equivalent to the rank of Joint Secretary to the Govt. of India. Positions in the field during the Time Scales and Junior Administrative Grade include Posts as Cantonment Executive Officer and Defence Estates Officer. The job of the Cantonment Executive Officer is primarily Municipal Administration of the Cantonments, management of all lands vested with the Cantonment Boards. The job content of the Cantonment Executive Officer is diversified and challenging, giving the Officer direct contact with the common people and an opportunity to contribute to their welfare.The Budgets of Cantonments run into several crores requiring skills of financial management on the part of the official. As a Cantonment Executive Officer, one is in a unique position where one has to prepare the Budget, generate revenues locally and also spend the money for public good. Normally in government, these functions are handled by different departments. The Cantonments Boards are duty bound to provide education and health care to the people. To cater to this, Cantonment Boards have built over the last 50 years, educational institutions and hospitals that cater to the needs of all Sections of the Society. The management of these institutions is taken care of by the Cantonment Executive Officer. All the civic amenities like Roads, Water Supply, Street lighting and electricity, Parks and Gardens, Sanitation, Drainage, Registration of Births and Deaths etc. also form an important part of the job profile of the Cantonment Executive Officer. Further, the Cantonment Executive Officer also doubles up as the custodian of all Defence lands vested in the Cantonment Board. He is the Estates Officer for these lands as per the Public Premises Eviction Act. The Defence Estates Officer is in charge of all Defence lands in the places under his jurisdiction which generally spreads over vast tracts of land. His functions include among others, management of all lands vested in him, maintaining land records, acquiring lands and buildings for the use of the Ministry of Defence, handling legal cases arising on account of the land acquisitions etc. The Directorate of Defence Estates in each Command does the overall supervision of the Cantt boards and Defence Estates Circles within its jurisdiction. The Directorates are located in Pune, Lucknow, Jammu, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Jaipur. The Directorate General, Defence Estates is located in New Delhi and is the apex body for the Department. The Indian Defence Estates Service offers an officer diversified and challenging job content while also according him with a unique place in the administrative set up. The service offers interaction of the officer with all sections of the society ranging from the poorest section of the society to the gentry, from the disciplined Armed Forces to way side vendors. The challenge lies in the ability of the Officer to harmonise the extremes in the best interest of the society and the organisation. Because of the job profile, the infrastructure available to the Officers of the Indian Defence Estates Service includes a decent Govt. accommodation in the green environment of the Cantonments, Staff Car, Canteen facilities in the Army and Medical facilities from Cantonment General Hospitals in addition to all the other Medical facilities available to other Govt. servants. As far as career progression and promotional avenues within the service are concerned, it has to be mentioned that the promotions are on a slower side while compared to some other services of the Govt. However, the Department has already initiated a proposal for cadre review of the service which, as and when it comes through, would put the Indian Defence Estates Officer at par if not better than the other Group ‘A’ Services. Once selected into the Service, the Probationer has to undergo foundational training at Mussoorie and then an eight month long training at National Institute of Defence Estates Management located in Delhi Cantt. Thereafter he is posted as a Cantonment Executive Officer in any of the 62 Cantts located in some of the most exotic locations throughout India. By Chandra Shekar, IDES 2000 |