Life Of An IAS Officer
This is needless to say that becoming an IAS officer is one of the most prestigious and desirable careers for anyone. Right from reputation to power and money everything can be achieved with this career. But you must know about what is under the shiny job profiles and glorification of this job. Lots of responsibilities and changes occur when you lead the life of IAS officer.
Life Of An IAS Officer
This is needless to say that becoming an IAS officer is one of the most prestigious and desirable careers for anyone. Right from reputation to power and money everything can be achieved with this career. But you must know about what is under the shiny job profiles and glorification of this job. Lots of responsibilities and changes occur when you lead the life of IAS officer.
This write up is going to be all about the life of IAS officer, to showcase you and to give you an idea about what’s the job like. If you are an IAS aspirant and fascinate about the glory of the job, you need to know about the life of IAS officer so well before living it.
IAS Officer Lifestyle
The candidates who clear all the rounds of UPSC civil service examination, and are allotted for the job as IAS officers are supposed to join in LalBahadurSashtri Academy Of Administration. The IAS officers maintain a very strict and disciplined lifestyle. They are supposed to be up by 6'o clock in the morning and getting ready for the practice session allotted for them. Here is a rough timetable that will make you understand about their morning routine.
Time slot |
What they do |
6 am-7 am |
Vigorous morning exercise or horse riding training for near about 60 minutes. |
7am-9am |
Free time for morning activities |
The routine also includes eight to ten hours of academic activities and training including lectures, sports and other extracurricular activities as well.
Since the IAS officers' jobs are mostly related to the administrative level, they get to know about the urban and rural India as well. The curriculum engaged in getting known about India from very grass root level is ‘Bharat Darshan’ or ‘India study tour’.
In these kinds of outdoor activities, the IAS officers trainees do trekking, visits rural areas, get acquainted with the rural lifestyle as well.
The trainees are free for socializing and contacting their family and friends before and after dinner time.
This tight schedule of an IAS trainee officer is changed as per their promotion as an IAS officer.
The whole job is about twelve hours a day. It roughly starts from 9 am and tends to end at around 9 pm. But when the work pressure is severe, it can take more hours. The whole job includes monitoring daily reports; surveillance of different ongoing tasks from different department or districts, attending meetings etc. different government projects and their implementation towards the development of the nation is reviewed by them too.
As mentioned before this is a twelve hours job, but it largely varies especially when there are emergencies like a natural disaster, disturbances etc. they mostly coordinate with the relief teams to carry on the serving procedure in the right direction.
The Life Roles Played By An IAS Officer:
The crucial and responsible roles played by the IAS officers are considered as the life roles because they have a huge impact on the Indian administrative system. Mostly three types of roles are performed by them including:
- Field assignments
- Public sector undertakings
- Central secretariat
Field assignments are the toughest of all the above-mentioned responsibilities. The core functions as administrative officers are mentioned below:
- The government launched projects, their policy-making and maintaining
- Their implementations and review as well
- Consultations with different representatives from different departments for the smooth execution of the task
- Managing different public sectors and paying for public funding regarding different schemes
- Monitoring and supervising different government programs and reporting
- Coordinate with relief teams to carry on the rescue procedure in an emergency including natural disaster
The IAS Officer’s Career Path:
The following list includes the career path of an IAS officer as per the promotions. The more the officer is promoted, the more responsibilities and duties appear. It makes the schedule and lifestyle lot more tight and strict.
- Phase one trainee
- District level trainee as per allotted cadre
- Phase two trainee handling a week-long foreign attachment
- Assistant secretary for three months at a nominal position of a central government administrated project
- Joint magistrate post or an SDM or as a sub-collector
- Post of honorable municipal commissioner
- Secretariat at the state level of joint secretary level
- DM or collector post
- After serving for years, an IAS officer can opt for the deputation post of the central government of India
- Principal in the state or central secretariat
- State chief secretary
- Cabinet secretary
The position of Cabinet secretary is the highest position as an IAS officer one can hold. So, it can be clear from here that acquiring a job of an IAS officer is not the end of the journey, there are still many more to achieve as a duty performer being an IAS officer.
The Salary Range of An IAS Officer:
The new 7th central pay commission has announced the basic pay of IAS officers is Rs. 56,100/-
The union cabinet secretary, being the topmost rank holder of all the IAS designations, receives a monthly payment of Rs. 250000/-
There are 18 levels in between and the payment also varies as per the designation.
There are several facilities enjoyed by IAS officers because of different requirements include:
- Government accommodation with subsidy facility. The district-level officers get the best houses of India for accommodation than any other service in India
- Security and stuff depending on the situation and requirement
- Reimbursement of mobile, telephone and internet charges as well
- Considering the situation and if it demands, household assistance including cooks, gardeners etc are provided
- No charges while on-duty for staying in government hotels or bungalows
- Government transport facilities for all the state and district level officers
- Monthly pension facility after the retirement
The job of IAS officers and the life of IAS officer is undoubtedly interesting. Being in the administration, it gives so much power so that you can do good for your society and simultaneously you can secure your own life with so many facilities.