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IPS killed by Mafia: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ips-officer-killed-by-mining-mafia-in-madhya-pradesh-470712
IAS slapped, quits civil services to start a startup: https://www.livemint.com/news/business-of-life/from-the-ias-to-a-startup-1541193353718.html
IES officer killed by mafia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Dubey#:~:text=Satyendra%20Dubey%20(1973%E2%80%932003),Golden%20Quadrilateral%20highway%20construction%20project.
Director General level Civil Servant wrongly accused of bribery, entire family tortured, entire family commits suicide : https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/bk-bansal-suicide-who-was-he-what-happened-and-who-did-he-blame-116092900465_1.html
Just a few examples. Sadly there are many. These are many realities of civil services that do not get enough publicity and people just see the glamour around it due to the colonial mindset of 200 years and just drop everything and start mugging up for the exams without deeply studying where they are landing. I mean if you know the pros and cons and then do something it is perfectly alright. But most of the students start prepping for UPSC just because their parents 'think' it is the ultimate thing to do in life. Nothing can be further from truth. So I would say do your due diligence and then pick up a career option. Each job is respectful and will have its own pros and cons. Only an illiterate uneducated mind would say that XYZ is the most superior job on planet and everything else is just lowlife. Wake up OP it is 2021!
Deals are not posted.
Legally India Topical is what? Nobody knows.
Jokes aside, agree with the sentiment entirely.
- R
In any capitalist, developed and liberal country it is mostly bank balance that is the sign of success like America. In USA there is no CRAZE to become a Detective in the police force or Captain of the Precinct (if it is your passion sure join the police force but in USA there is NOT a crazy obsession for government job)…as opposed to say the craze to become a DSP or SP in India. This is further amplified by the fact that 70 percent of India lives in rural area or somehow has direct roots to it. And in rural area if you want a well paying job with power, UPSC is the only way to go. I think more than money it is a perverted sense of power that society has gifted to these civil servants that is the cause for this craze. The VIP culture of civil services is almost absent in USA. The contrary attitude prevalent in India was also helped by the fact that even post-independence the same my baap culture was allowed to continue to some extent (at least psychologically) and till pre-liberalization and even up to may be 1990s civil services used to be the highest paying JOB. Agar NAUKRI karke paisa kamana hai to civil servant ban jaao. Simple. Typical service class/middle class dream. It might be noted that in no other developed country like USA or even in UK itself is the bureaucracy given such god level treatment. Government job in USA is just like any other job with its own advantages and disadvantages. But the hallmark of success in any developed capitalist country is your bank balance and salary and NOT if you are driving a car with a beacon. In India I can bet go to any small city of India and the hallmark of success for the majority of people would be whether or not you have become an IAS. Which obviously is wrong.
This attitude has destroyed generations of entrepreneurial ideas and prevented many kids from becoming future business men/women and tycoons, as kids from school life are taught that IAS is 'my baap' and every other thing is just slavery. This stops the mental ambition of kids. So instead of starting a startup, choosing a profession/vocation or becoming artists or whatever else their talents best suited them to become, these young guns slave for years and years to clear UPSC just because their parents said so. This lower and middle class dream of IAS has literally destroyed India and may be costed 3 to 4 % in GDP growth annually. If in a country of "1.2 billion" population, the country's young students instead of getting employed and working or creating businesses are just sitting in a room for five years at a stretch mugging up current affairs for an exam which eventually only has about "90" seats for IAS annually, naturally the country is losing on productive labour and gross national product and per capita salary. It is disguised unemployment, all because of the parent's stupid attitude that IAS is king, they destroy the lives of youth and cost nation millions of dollars, when the same youth could have been so good at so many other things like sports, business, acting, accountancy, law or whatever zillion professional options one has. Even if they do not become IAS the craze for government job is still there. So they will become a sub-inspector, or tehsildar or BDO or join some allied state services and still continue to prepare for UPSC. They will take a government job and then will abscond from the same or take study leaves for months, just to prepare for UPSC, this causes a grave loss to the state exchequer both in terms of manhours plus money. And if these people do not make it to UPSC then they spend the rest of their lives cursing the jobs that they are doing because duh but obviously the jobs that they are doing is "inferior" to IAS. In a country where caste system and social strata is so dominant doing an "inferior" job comes with its own set of social and psychological ramifications.
By law of probability if millions of people are fighting for just 90 seats, the one million minus 90 people will naturally end up unsatisfied for the rest of their lives if they have imbibed a mindset that every other job is inferior. They have have may be sacrificed 2 may be 3 years and in some cases 6 to 10 years of their prime youth preparing for the exams and still could not get IAS by sheer law of probability and averages. Congratulations, you have now created a disgruntled human resource, that is going to be jealous and feel inferior to IAS officers for the rest of their lives. My father is a prime example of this. He sacrificed many years for the IAS dream, he eventually did land a government job, but since he could not get IAS it was like a bitter thorn for the rest of his life. Throughout his life he worked for the government and naturally there was an inferiority complex deeply embedded in him thanks to a typical middle class Indian upbringing that has gone unchecked for DECADES now that IAS is the King. He is NOT. When you have psychologically moulded your kids right from childhood into making them believe that IAS is the king, then if he/she does not become that, there is a high chance they will have an inferiority complex for the REST OF THEIR LIVES. The statement from OP is reflective of this EXACT mindset. Our kids deserve better! This why the government is trying to make maximum age for UPSC as 26 years. This is why government is allowing lateral entry from private sectors to equivalent positions of civil servants. This is why the government is trying to make non IAS officers from civil services as head of institutions and various bodies which have traditionally always have IAS. Just to break this stereotype. But there is immense pressure from public to not to change the system as they see UPSC as their only chance to have any go at real power. Which is why various civil society leaders have demanded an end to VIP culture and unnecessary VIP treatment provided to some govt officers and netas. So that this unhealthy obsession goes away.
The Indian civil services system is out dated, redundant and archaic. Except may be essay and ethics paper the exams just test rote learning, and the whole idea of optional subject is just crazy. You can take medical science as subject and end up becoming an Indian Postal Service officer. What is the connection? If your exam system allows a B.A. in Sanskrit to become an Indian Revenue Services officer, there is something fundamentally wrong in your system. Much like private job, government jobs should be aligned with graduation outcomes. Just like a lawyer becomes a judge, an accountant/CA should be in IRS, and people from IIMs should be leading government PSUs. There should be some rational nexus.
Now is the time to drop certain TRUTH BOMBS on OP which should answer the questions. No UPSC is not the ultimate career parth, but it is one of the many career paths. It is definitely not the highest paying profession any more. IIM/IIT/NLU graduates and other grads from other top professional schools earn a lot lot more than even the senior most IAS officer of the country can ever imagine. The car, the driver can easily be bought with money. Taking orders from a politician and dealing with goons and sourceful people day in and day out can be as tiring as a normal private desk job. Some IAS officers sleep just 4 hours a day, due to the immense workload they have. Some IAS have quit their jobs because a politician slapped them. Some IPS have been killed by the mafia. Some IRS have been wrongly framed and jailed for the rest of their lives. The DM bunglow you only get for a few years of your IAS life. Rest of the time you will be living in normal flats. Post retirement you will live an ordinary life. A lot of Civil Servants actually quit while they are still young and move to private sector. A law firm partner would have saved 10 times more than an average civil servant by the time he retires. Plus a lawyer can practice even post retirement. Due to illiteracy, lack of sensitivity, lack of career opportunities, and a slavery mindset (thanks to the British) a lot of Indians do think UPSC as the ultimate career option. Lot of civil servants themselves are pushing their children to private sectors or even abroad to work in MNCs. Because they know that brilliant and very well paying opportunities exist in private sectors too. Since they themselves have become civil servants they know the difficulties lying beneath all that glamour. So would you measure yardstick of success from what an uneducated, biased, desensitised rural mind thinks or what the educated people think?? No the IAS is not a GOD, he is just another babu doing just another job, much like zillions of other jobs in India. Each job being equally respectable. The British era is gone, and OP you should change your feudal mindset too, you are not your parent, you are you. Build your own identity. Take your own rational decisions.
People forget that all of this can be bought with money.
Total number of students from NLSIU and NLUD combined who have opted for other careers till date > 2500.
So stop making ridiculous arguments.
Vaishali Singh was a gold medalist at NLUD and working at S&R before IAS. Vinayak from NLS was at Allen & Overy in London before the IPS. Vikramaditya from NALSAR did his Oxford BCL before joining IAS. People like Saumya Sharma, Jaydev and Kanchan were barely out of college but aimed for IAS turning down other paths. Other NLS people like Geetanjali and Saket were at Amarchand and Luthra/JSA before joining the IFS.