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(Notification) UPSC Indian Forest Service Examination (IFoS), 2017

F.No.13/4/2016-EI(B): The Union Public Service Commission will hold a Screening Test for selection to Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, 2017 through Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2017 which will be held on 18th June, 2017, in accordance with the Rules published by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in the Gazette of India dated the 22nd February, 2017.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

The candidate must hold a Bachelor's degree with at least one of the subjects namely Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Zoology or a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture, Forestry or in Engineering of any of Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification.

AGE LIMIT:

A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on 1st August, 2017, i.e. he must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1985 and not later than 1st August, 1996.

NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS :

Every candidate appearing at the Examination, who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted six attempts at the examination.

Provided that this restriction on the number of attempts will not apply in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates who are otherwise eligible.

Provided further that the number of attempts permissible to candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes who are otherwise eligible, shall be nine.

Provided further that a physically handicapped will get as many attempts as are available to other nonphysically handicapped candidates of his or her community, subject to the condition that a physically handicapped candidate belonging to the General Category, shall be eligible for nine attempts. Necessary action to make corresponding changes in respective Rules/Regulations pertaining to Indian Forest Service is being taken separately. The relaxation will be available to the physically handicapped candidates who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates.

PHYSICAL STANDARDS:

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Indian Forest Service Examination, 2017 as per regulations given in Appendix-III of the rules for the Indian Forest Service Examination, 2017 published in Gazette of India dated 22nd February, 2017.

PLAN OF EXAMINATION

The competitive examination comprises two successive stages :

(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective Type) for the screening & selection of candidates for Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination; and
(ii) Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates against the vacancies identified and reported for the Indian Forest Service Examination.

The preliminary Examination will consist of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions) and carry a maximum of 400 marks in the subjects set out in sub-section (A) of Section II. This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only; the marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit. The number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination will be about twelve to thirteen times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled in the year through this examination. Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in the year will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission, to the Main Examination

Note I : Since there may be common candidates for Civil Services Examination and the Indian Forest Service Examination, after the common Screening Test done through Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, separate lists will be prepared for the candidates eligible to appear in the Civil Service (Main) Examination and Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, based on the criterion of minimum qualifying marks of 33% in General Studies Paper-II of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination and total qualifying marks of General Studies Paper-I of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination as determined by the Commission on the number of vacancies to be filled through the Civil Services Examination and Indian Forest Service Examination.

Exam Syllabus:

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION :

The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.

Paper I - (200 marks)
Duration : Two hours

Current events of national and international importance
History of India and Indian National Movement
Indian and World Geography- Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
Indian Polity and Governance- Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Economic and Social Development- Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization.
General Science.

Paper II- (200 marks)
Duration : Two hours

Comprehension
Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
Logical reasoning and analytical ability
Decision making and problem solving
General mental ability
Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. - Class X level)

Note 1: Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.

Note :

(i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).
(ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.
(iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III.
(v) Candidates must write the papers in their own hand. In no circumstances will they be allowed the help of a scribe to write the answers for them. However, Low Vision candidates (minimum 40% impairment) will be allowed to write the examination with the help of a scribe. Low Vision candidates will also be allowed an extra time of forty minutes for each paper @ twenty minutes per hour. Each paper will be of two hours duration.

MAIN EXAMINATION

(A) The written examination consisting of the following papers:-

Paper I: General English - 300 Marks
Paper II: General Knowledge - 300 Marks
Paper III: Any two subjects to be - 200 marks
Paper IV: selected from the list of for each
Paper V: the optional subjects set paper
Paper VI: out in para 2 below.

Each subject will have two papers.

(B) Interview for Personality Test (See Part (C) of Section II of this Appendix) of such candidates as may be called by the Commission -

2. List of optional subjects :

(i) Agriculture
(ii.) Agricultural Engineering
(iii) Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Chemical Engineering
(vii) Civil Engineering
(viii) Forestry
(ix) Geology
(x) Mathematics
(xi) Mechanical Engineering
(xii) Physics
(xiii) Statistics
(xiv) Zoology

Provided that the candidates will not be allowed to offer the following combination of subjects :

(a) Agriculture and Agricultural Engg.
(b) Agriculture and Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science.
(c) Agriculture and ·Forestry.
(d) Chemistry and Chemical Engg.
(e) Mathematics and Statistics.
(f) Of the Engineering subjects viz. Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering- not more than one subject;

NOTE - The standard and syllabi of the subjects mentioned above are given in Section III to this appendix General:

1. All the question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
2. ALL QUESTION PAPERS MUST BE ANSWERED IN ENGLISH. QUESTION PAPERS WILL BE SET IN ENGLISH ONLY.
3. The duration of each of the papers referred to above will be three hours.
4. Candidates must write the papers in their own hand. In no circumstances will they be allowed the help of a scribe to write the answers for them. However, Low Vision candidates (minimum 40% impairment) will be allowed to write the examination with the help of a scribe. Low Vision candidates will also be allowed an extra time of sixty minutes for each paper @ twenty minutes per hour. Each paper will be of three hours duration.

Application Fee:

Candidates applying (excepting Female/SC/ST/PH candidates who are exempted from payment of fee) for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination are required to pay a fee of Rs.100/- (Rupees One Hundred only) either by depositing the money in any Branch of SBI by cash, or by using net banking facility of SBI, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur/State Bank of Hyderabad/State Bank of Mysore/State Bank of Patiala/State Bank of Travancore or by using Visa/Master Credit/Debit card.

HOW TO APPLY:

Candidates are required to apply Online using the link www.upsconline.nic.in for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination which will act as a screening mechanism for selection of candidates for the Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination. Candidates who wish to apply for Civil Services Examination also, [subject to their satisfying the prescribed eligibility conditions] have to apply once by appropriately indicating in the on-line application form that they intend to appear for both the Indian Forest Service Examination and the Civil Services Examination. Candidates, who will qualify for the Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, will have to fill in a Detailed Application Form subsequently as per further instructions to be provided to the candidates through the website (www.upsconline.nic.in) of the Commission. Detailed instructions for filling up Online Applications are available on the above mentioned website.