IRMS examination: A day after the budget was presented in the parliament, the Railways ministry said that a decision has been taken to recruit officers for the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) through the Civil Services Examination to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for 2023. Earlier the ministry had stated that recruitment to the service would be done through a specially designed IRMS examination.
"Ministry of Railways, in consultation with UPSC and DoPT, has decided that recruitment to Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done through the Civil Services Examination to be conducted by the UPSC for the year 2023," the ministry said in a statement.
Although the ministry did not reveal the reason behind the decision, sources indicate that it most likely caved into pressure from officers in non-engineering cadres.
It should be mentioned here that the IRMS Examination was considered to benefit students with an engineering or commerce background who planned to take the Civil Services Examination with an additional avenue open exclusively to them.
About IRMSE examination
The IRMSE will be a two-tier test -- a preliminary screening examination followed by a main written examination and interview.
For screening candidates for the second stage of the examination, i.e. IRMS (Main) written examination, all eligible candidates shall be required to appear in Civil Services (Preliminary) examination.
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The IRMS (Main) exam will consist of four papers of conventional essay-type questions in subject sets. The first will have two qualifying papers of 300 marks each -- Paper A on one of the Indian languages selected by the candidate and Paper B on English.
(With inputs from agencies)
