Indian Railway Management Services to conduct exams through UPSC

The newly added Indian Railways’ Class A Services – The Indian Railway Management Services, in an initiative to streamline their recruitment process will now conduct their exams through Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). This will come into effect in 2023.

IAS coaching centres like Absolute IAS Academy will now be providing coaching for IRMS exams as well since the syllabi for both Civil Service Examinations (CSE) and IRMS are the same.

Initially, Engineering Service Examination, Civil Service Examination, and Medical Service Examination were conducted to select candidates for technical, administrative and accounts, and medical services respectively in the railways. The new system allows officials for the technical and administrative accounts services to be selected through specially designed UPSC examinations. IRMS will be an amalgamation of eight existing services of the Indian railways.

In short candidates interested in applying for the posts of Indian Railway Service of Engineers, Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers, Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers and Indian Railway Stores Service, Indian Railway Traffic Service, Indian Railway Personnel Service, Indian Railway Accounts Service, and the Railway Protection Force, can write exam through a single UPSC system.

This examination will be similar to those of IAS exams. It will be conducted in two stages – candidates need to appear for the preliminary examination conducted for civil services and candidates who clear the prelims will need to appear for the IRMS main examination.

CSE aspirants with an Engineering or Commerce background can now try for the IRMS exams as well. They can either choose the same optional subject or a different subject as per their choice. Also, they can also choose the medium of instruction as the same as what they have used for CSE. For instance, institutions like the Absolute IAS Academy provide IAS coaching in Malayalam. If a candidate has chosen to write the IAS paper in Malayalam, he can choose the same medium, while writing the IRMS exams.

Candidates who appear for the IRMS exams should be a graduate in either of the subjects- they should be degree holders in either Commerce, Engineering, or Chartered Accountancy. If passing IRMS was an easier task earlier, students need to have a wider general knowledge of the new system and this necessitates them to go to special UPSC training centres.

This year, 150 candidates will be recruited through the IRMS exams. As railways have advanced technologically there is a dire need for technical expertise from the candidates. The new system helps in recruiting candidates in a more efficient manner.

The IRMS main entrance test will be divided into four categories. The first paper will be divided into two parts of 300 marks each. While one paper tests the candidate’s regional language proficiency, the other tests the English language skill.

Part two will consist of two optional papers (250 marks each) which can be either on Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Commerce or Accountancy. Paper three will be a personality test for 100 marks and the syllabi will be the same as that of the CSE.