Official U-turn

 Lok Sabha election result unnerved the NC led coalition to its core. After being pilloried electorally, the decision-centers having abandoned their hibernation have accelerated their quest for intelligent governance.

Within few weeks, coalition has gathered itself to undo some decisions deemed unfavorable in order to capture back the public imaginations. One such program annulled was the stipendiary labor, officially reckoned as “new job policy”.

In December 2011, NC led coalition unveiled an “employment epigram” with much fanfare designed to secure maximum employment for the aspiring generation.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had bragged that the aim of this policy is to provide employment for about 80,000 people from the state.

This statement coming from the corridors of power had turned the youth euphoric but simultaneously disappointed the talent pool from the valley. Coalition seemed well convinced about the viability of this policy launched only with the intentions to dissuade people from taking up government jobs.

The policy looked lame from the day one considering its negative connotations preventing qualified persons from taking up government jobs.

Government, all of a sudden had decided to indulge itself in a sort of legalized bonded labor which ostensibly was against the universal right to a decent living. Policy makers justified the decision saying that state doesn’t have enough resources to pay off the requisite salaries, hence an altered recourse was the solution.

Now that the decision stands revoked much to the happiness of youths as CM himself acknowledged, policy makers apparently didn’t come out with any statements clarifying as to how the state managed to generate such a huge resource base to pay off full salaries to the newly appointed employees besides bearing the brunt of accommodating the average talent as majority of the unemployed youths stayed away believing that their talent can fetch them much more than what the government was offering.

A single failure has overturned the ruling coalition which appears little confident about its past and incompetent in decision making to the extent that their own flagship policies couldn’t withstand their self generated introspection and were forced to bog-down fearing reprisal again in upcoming assembly election.

 

UPSC COMBINED CIVIL SERVICE EXAM 2014 – KNOW THE CHANGES

Union Public Service Commission has published the notification for combined civil service examination, 2014 after a minor delay on 31st of May delineating the provisions that will govern the examination process. The said notice, which as per the notified calendar should have been published on 17th of May, was delayed by nearly two weeks throwing up speculations that UPSC may annul certain amendments incorporated last year to the ‘proposed changes’ under pressure owing to the outcry that the suggested changes generated inside the Parliament.

 However, the public service commission did not altered any major clause instead it has relaxed the ‘Age Limit’ by Two Years besides increasing the number of attempts by a margin of Two, which has rekindled the hopes of several hundred aspirants who otherwise were feeling incapacitated on account of syllabus change last year.

The notification issued by the commission will make recruitments for 1291 post spread across 26 different Central and All India Services for prestigious All India Service IAS, IPS, IFS (Indian Forest Service) and Central IFS (Indian Foreign Service).

Last year after the ‘Nigavekar report’ was implemented, some major changes were suggested in the scheme of this examination which includes the introduction of FOUR COMPULSORY General Studies papers, common for all aspirants besides limiting the number of optional subjects to only one, also reducing the weightage of interview to 250 from 300. Earlier, an aspirant was supposed to opt for two optional subjects while under the new pattern, he has to opt for only one optional subject.

This process of change was initiated few years back when UPSC modified the preliminary exam which is a kind of screening test, by introducing CSAT paper i.e. civil service aptitude test instead of subject based optional paper besides clubbing the preliminary exam for combined civil service and Indian Forest Service, another All India Service created in 1966. Prior to this change, candidates were directly allowed to write descriptive papers for Forest service Examination.  Preliminary examination for Civil Services now consists of objective type two papers each carrying 200 marks. Paper II is designed to test the candidate’s aptitude for civil services and decision making.

 Every year lakhs of candidates appear in the preliminary exams however only few thousand candidates, approximately ‘twelve to thirteen times’ the number of vacancies in that particular year are declared as qualified for writing the mains examination. Marks scored in the preliminary exam are not considered for the determination of merit because it serves only as a screening test.

Mains examination is of descriptive nature, having a total of nine papers including TWO QUALIFYING PAPERS which are not considered for the determination of the final merit list. THIS YEAR UPSC HAS MADE SOME CHANGES WITH REGARD TO THE QUALIFYING PAPERS. EARLIER A CANDIDATE WAS SUPPOSED TO SECURE MINIMUM QUALIFYING MARKS IN THESE SUBJECTS DECIDED BY THE COMMISSION, BUT FROM THIS YEAR ONWARDS, A CANDIDATE IS SUPPOSED TO SECURE MINIMUM PASSING MARKS OF 25% FOR ENGLISH AND 30% FOR THE LANGUAGE PAPER. FROM LAST FEW YEARS, ANNUAL REPORTS PUBLISHED BY THE COMMISSSION SUGGEST THAT A GOOD NUMBER OF ASPIRANTS HAVE FAILED IN LANGUAGE PAPER THEREBY LEADING TO THEIR DISQUALIFICATION BECAUSE THE REMAINING PAPERS OF SUCH CANDIDATES ARE NOT EVALUATED AS PER THE NORMS OF THIS EXAMINATION.

ANOTHER CHANGE INTRODUCED BY UPSC IN ESSAY PAPER IS THAT A STUDENT WAS SUPPOSED TO WRITE A SINGLE ESSAY FROM A HOST OF TOPICS PROVIDED IN THE QUESTION PAPER BUT HENCEFORTH, A CANDIDATE MAY HAVE TO WRITE SEVERAL ESSAYS AS PROVIDED IN THE NOTIFICATION ISSUED BY THE COMMISSION. ESSAY PAPER CARRIES A TOTAL OF 250 MARKS AND IS COUNTED FOR THE DETERMINATION OF MERIT LIST. Mains examination carries a total of 1750 marks excluding interview. Personality Interview is worth 275 marks thus making a total of 2025.

HOW TO APPLY:

Aspirants have to apply Online on the website http://www.upsconline.nic.in. Detailed instructions for filling up online applications are available on the above mentioned website.

LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS IS 30th June, 2014.

CANDIDATES FROM THE VALLEY CAN OPT SRINAGAR AS THE CENTRE FOR EXAMINATIONS.

CHANGES INITIATED FROM THIS YEAR. A MUST KNOWN FOR A SERIOUS ASPIRANT

CHANGES WITH REGARD TO ‘AGE LIMIT’:

A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on the 1st of August, 2014 i.e., aspirant must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1982 and not later than 1st August, 1993.

This implies for General category candidates, the age limit has been extended by two years. Earlier the upper age limit was 30. A relaxation of two years has brought relief to several aspirants who were apprehensive about their success in the backdrop of the changes crafted in the syllabus last year.

For candidates from Jammu and Kashmir, relaxation conceded in age-bar earlier was five years i.e. 35 years but the ‘new provisions’ notified by the commission has extended it upto 37 Years.

CANDIDATES MUST NOTE THAT THIS RELAXATION ALSO APPLIES TO INDIAN FOREST SERVICE, BESIDES COMBINED CIVIL SERVICE.

‘NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS’ THAT A CANDIDATE CAN AVAIL:

Any candidate who appears in the examination is now permitted to write civil service examination SIX TIMES, 2 more than a candidate could have availed under the previous provisions. However this provision can’t impede the special concessions enjoyed by SC/ST and OBC candidates. SC/ST candidates are allowed to write Civil Service Exam any number of times till the age permits. For OBC candidates, the number of attempts available were seven until 33 years of age, however according to the new provisions, OBC candidates can make nine appearances until 35 years of age. ATTEMPTS RELATED RELAXATION IS APPLICABLE TO FOREST SERVICES EXAM AS WELL.

FOR GENERAL CATEGORY CANDIDATES FROM JAMMU AND KASHMIR, A TOTAL OF 6 CHANCES ARE AVAILABLE UNDER THE NEW PATTERN. Earlier a GENERAL CATEGORY candidate from the state could attempt this examination 4 times only. IT’S PERTINENT TO MENTION THAT CUMULATIVE BENEFITS CAN’T BE AVAILED BY THE CATEGORY CANDIDATES.

For the candidates enjoying benefits under several categories, new provisions do not impede the implementation of concessions admissible to them. SC/ST candidates who could earlier attempt the examination ANY NUMBER OF TIMES until 35 years of age can now enjoy the same benefit until 37 YEARS.

MINIMUM EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

A graduate in any stream can appear in this examination, however the university that has offered the degree should be incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University Under Section-3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification.

FEE:

Candidates belonging to SC, ST, Physically Handicapped and Females are exempted from paying the fee. The general category candidates will have to pay a fee of Rs 100 either by paying in cash at any SBI branch on a web generated fee slip or else by using net banking facility of State Bank of India/State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur/Sate Bank of Hyderabad/State Bank of Mysore/State Bank of Patiala /State Bank of Travancore or by using Visa/Master Credit/Debit Card.

Important dates

1.            Online registration will start from 31st May,2014

2.            Last date for the registration will be 30th June, 2014

3.            Date of examination is 24 August, 2014

4.            Application for the main examination will be called in the month of September/October 2014.

MBA @ HAMDARD UNIVERSITY

Department of Management Studies, Hamdard University, New Delhi has started the admission process for filling up seats in two year master’s programme in Business Administration:

                MBA Health and Hospital Management, [MBA-HM]

MBA Pharmaceutical Management, [MBA-PM]

The admission process will start from JUNE 1, when the sale of the forms begins. Last date for the sale of forms will be JUNE 16 while the last date for the submission of the forms will be JUNE 17. Group discussion and personal interview including the verification of the documents will be done on JUNE 18 and the date for the commencement of classes is JUNE 23.

COURSE FEE: Rs Three lakh Fifty thousand, Rs 3,50,000 payable in Four instalments.

Application forms for the said courses can be obtained from the office of the Department of Management Studies against a payment of Rs 1200 from Monday to Friday between 9:00AM to 4:00PM. Completely filled forms should be deposited in the same office before JUNE 17.

ELIGIBILITY:

                Bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognised university with 50% marks in aggregate.

                CMAT/MAT/GMAT/XAT/CAT/GPAT/ATMA/AIIMS exam scorecard upto May-2014 or any other examination approved by the university.

For further info check website

www.jamiahamdard.edu

 

Qualifying Papers:

Paper-A

(One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution).300 Marks.

Paper-B

English 300 Marks

Papers to be counted for merit

Paper-I

Essay 250 Marks

Paper-II

General Studies-I 250 Marks

(Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)

Paper-III

General Studies -II 250 Marks

(Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)

Paper-IV

General Studies -III 250 Marks

(Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)

Paper-V

General Studies -IV 250 Marks

(Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)

Paper-VI

Optional Subject – Paper I 250 Marks

Paper-VII

Optional Subject – Paper II 250 Marks

Sub Total  (Written test) 1750 Marks

Personality Test 275 Marks

Grand Total 2025 Marks

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