The IES or Indian Economics Services, a Group A civil services of the Union of India, conducts an Indian Economics Services Exam (IES Exam) every year. On behalf of the IES, the exam is taken by the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission of India) to recruit aspirants to various posts requiring the services of economists in Organizations or Departments under the Central Government.

Structure of IES Exam

The IES constitutes of a written test and a personality test which is for qualifiers of the written test. The written test will have essay type questions from the following subjects (duration in brackets):

General English for 100 marks (3 hours)

General Studies for 100 marks (3 hours)

General Economics I, II, III for 200 marks each (3 hours each)

Indian Economics for 200 marks (3 hours)

The Personality test is an interview for qualifiers of the written test and carries 200 marks.

Syllabus for IES Exam

There is no specific syllabus for the IES but instead, requires a lot of reference materials for each subject in the exam. General English would be comparatively easier as many books are there that can improve the candidates’ prowess in the language.

Eligibility Criteria

For attending the IES exam, the candidates have to be qualified in the Post graduate degree in any of the following disciplines – Economics/Applied Economics/Business Economics/Econometrics. Candidates awaiting results from their post graduate degrees in the aforementioned degrees are also eligible to apply.

The Age limit is between 21 and 30 as on January 1 of the year of recruitment.

Besides the above conditions, the candidates should either be citizens of India or subjects of Nepal, Bhutan or a refugee from Tibet intending to settle permanently in India or Individuals of Indian Origin.

How to Apply?

The application for the IES is to be done online in the website

http://www.upsconline.nic.in.

The website will also have instructions that should be followed while filling the form. Candidates residing in remote areas can do it offline by acquiring a common application form being used by the Commission. It can be obtained from designated post offices in the country for an amount of Rs 30/-.

General category candidates are required to pay the exam fee of Rs 100/- through only a single recruitment fee stamp. SC/ST/PH category candidates are excused from paying this fee for registration while OBC candidates are to pay the full amount.

Application forms should be sent to the ” Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi-110 069″ either by hand or by Post/Speed Post or by Courier.

Request s for withdrawing application forms after submission will not be entertained.

How to fill the Form?

There will be instructions in the website which will be need for guidance while filling the form. The candidates should practice great care and caution while filling the form. Before starting to fill up, go through the form and see what all are to be entered in each field. Refer the guidelines for knowing how specific each entry in certain fields should be.

Making errors is very normal. But rectify all errors before you send the form. Once submitted, the candidates won’t be able to make anymore changes nor even request for one. Candidates are to fill the forms in their own handwriting using blue or black pens. To ensure that the offline application forms reach the Commission’s office, finish the form and submit it early by Registered/Speed post. Certain entries in the form need to be darkened (only using HB pencils). So do it carefully and accurately as those entries are processed by computers.  Another point is where the candidates are to choose their center of examination. Select only that center where he/she would be comfortable and nearest to reach and enter it clearly. The entries in boxes of the form would be considered final and binding.

The form after fill up should be checked once more all over again to know if there are any errors and correct them. A photocopy of the filled up form may be kept by the candidates in case of any sophistications.

Important Dates (Tentative)

Date of issue of forms – On the month of June, 2012

Last date of submitting online application form: End of June, 2012

Last date of offline submission of form – 1st week of July, 2012

Exam date: Fourth week of November, 2012

The dates may be changed or postponed. Candidates are recommended to be alert for any news regarding the dates.

List of IES Exam centers

Exam will be held in centres located in:

• Ahamedabad
• Allahabad
• Banglore
• Bhopal
• Chandigarh
• Chennai
• Cuttack
• Delhi
• Dispur
• Hyderabad
• Jaipur
• Jammu
• Kolkata
• Lucknow
• Mumbai
• Patna
• Shillong
• Shimla
• Trivandrum

The centres are tentative.

Contact Address for the IES Exam

For enquiries, contact:

• UPSC’s Facilitation Counter near Gate ’C of its campus, Telephone No. 011-23385271
• 011-23381125, 011-23098543 on working days between 10.00 hrs. and 17.00 hrs.
• Website: www.upsc.gov.in

Reference Books for IES Exam

The IES exam is going to need a lot of reference. Important reference materials for each subject are given below:

For General Economics I:

• Micro Economics by Ahuja
• Micro Economics by Koutsoyiannis
• Macro Economics by Ahuja
• Macro Economics by Shapiro
• Macro Economics by Dornbusch and Fischer

For General Economics II:

• Monetary Economics: SB Gupta, ML Jinghan and RBI Reports
• International Economics by Soderston and A Mannur.
• Growth and Development by ML Jinghan; Meir and Baldwin

For General Economics III:

• Public Finance by Bhatia
• Indian Economy by Planning chapter of Uma Kapila
• Environmental Economics – Any good books (Topic wise coverage)

For Indian Economics I:

• Indian Economy by Dutt and Sundaram; Mishra and Puri; A N Agarwala; Uma Kapila

Coaching Centers for IES Exam

Enrolling into coaching centres is a good idea

• Brilliance IAS
• Naipunya Academy
• Confidence IAS Academy
• National Academy for Civil Services Examinations
• Educasium
• Ganesh IAS
• Excel Career India
• Team IAS Academy
• Strategy IAS Academy
• Dhruv Academy
• Paradigm IAS Academy
• Jai Bharat

Study Plan

A civil service exam like IES requires such a strategy in which the candidates will be able to cover all topics in the right time. A lot of reference materials are required. So obviously there is supposed to be a lot of time reading. The more the candidates read about general matters, the more comfortable will the exam be for them. For the personality test, a lot of confidence is the most significant trait a candidate should have. Face the interview questions with a lot of confidence even if you believe that you are not sure about the answer.

How and Where To Get the Results?

This website will provide the results as soon as they are announced - http://upsc.gov.in/

Score Validity

The scores of the IES will be valid until all the vacancies are occupied.