Remove negative people around you, UPSC aspirants told

The Hindu and Shankar IAS Academy host UPSC aspirants club inaugural with inspiring insights from Southern Railway Divisional Operations Manager.

The inaugural of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants club was organised by The Hindu in association with the Shankar IAS Academy at AVS Arts and Science College in Omalur on Thursday.

Y. Saravanakumar, Divisional Operations Manager, Salem Division of Southern Railway, was the chief guest for the event.

At the event, Mr. Saravanakumar told students many civil servants were living inspirations for people and they did what they would not have done while they were a common man. A student, who was unable to get an education loan during his college days, provided 8,000 students with education loan worth ₹110 crore after he became the Collector in Erode district in 2007-08. Likewise, another civil servant arranged funds to lay a road for 100 km in Manipur through crowdfunding, and today that road was a connecting point of Manipur-Assam-Nagaland. A civil servant could bring many reforms, Mr. Saravanakumar added.

Asking the aspirants to avoid negative people around them, Mr. Saravanakumar said aspirants should have positive surroundings and people around them to succeed. “If one speaks negatively, you should get rid of them. Aspirants should analyse their strengths and weaknesses and improve their weak areas. Civil services exams are not like semester exams. There are different patterns for prelims, mains, and interviews. Aspirants should read more books and newspapers, as drafting skills are important for mains.” Civil services exams were like a personality test. In the 20-minute interview, your every word would be noticed. Language was not a barrier for the exams. Many people successfully cleared them by writing and attending interviews in their mother tongue, Mr. Saravanakumar added.

Explaining his personal experience in clearing the civil services exams, the railway officer asked aspirants to study thoroughly the Plus One and Plus Two NCERT and Tamil Nadu textbooks while preparing for the exams. “The UPSC exam is not tougher than the TNPSC exams. It is based on the mindset of the aspirants,” Mr. Saravanakumar added.

Later, the chief guest handed over special publications from The Hindu Group worth ₹30,000 sponsored by Shankar IAS Academy to the library of the college.

L. Gokula Krishnan, faculty for development administration from Shankar IAS Academy, and T. Thilakraj, Salem branch head of Shankar IAS Academy, explained the civil services exams patterns. College principal M. Manivannan spoke at the event.