IRMS Exam 2021 Syllabus & Pattern (Indian Railways Management Services)

A career in the Indian Railways is the most promising and rewarding option for all those aspirants who are seeking a ‘permanent’ job in the PSU. With a collective employee strength of around 1.6 millions (as on 2019), this government entity i.e. Indian Railways is reckoned as the most magnanimous employers for the common man to get associated with the Government of India.

Every year, Indian Railways announce a plethora of rewarding career opportunities in India and for a direct employment, every aspirant has to crack the competitive examination which is conducted by the central recruiting agency i.e. Union Public Service Commission (USPC) for different posts.

Recently, the Government of India has officially announced an amalgamation of all eight existing rail services into a single cadre i.e. Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS) in order to conduct the next recruitment cycle of an exclusive railway service examination. The new proposed IRMS will be responsible for the Railway Examinations of ESE & CSE for both 2020 and 2021.

Merger of existing 8 cadres into unified Group ‘A’ Service – Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS)

Existing eight technical and non-technical cadres and departments:

1. Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE)
2. Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME)
3. Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE)
4. Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE)
5. Indian Railway Stores Services (IRSS)
6. Indian Railways Personnel Service (IRPS)
7. Indian Railways Accounts Service (IRAS)
8. Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS)

As per the proposed reform by various committees, these would be merged into a unified railway group ‘A’ service, Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS).

Recruitment through IRMS Under 5 Specialities

The IRMS will be headed by Chairman Railway Board (CRB) who will be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with 4 Members and some Independent Members. All new personnel in railways will be recruited through the UPSC civil services exams under five specialities, Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said. He said just like aspirants to the Union Public Service Commission, candidates who wish to have a service in railways will have to appear for their prelims after which they will indicate their preference for IRMS under five specialities.

Four of them are engineering practices for ‘technical’ operations:

1. Civil,
2. Mechanical,
3. Telecom, and
4. Electrical

One will be ‘non-technical’ speciality which will recruit officers for accounts, personnel and traffic.

The Chairman along with four members responsible for infrastructure, operations, and business development, rolling stock and finance respectively will form the Railway Board. The Chairman shall be the controlling officer responsible for Human Resources (HR) along with a DG (HR). Three top level posts shall be given by Railway Board and all its remaining posts shall be open to all officers regardless of the service to which they belonged.

“We are going to send an indent specifying our recruitment for the five specialisations — four for engineers, including that of stores (department) and another for non-engineering in which anyone can come from humanities side who will be utilised for manning the accounts, traffic and personnel service. All of them will be promoted at the same time,” said Yadav. The first batch will be recruited in 2021, while the new five-member board with merged officers will be in place by the middle of next year, officials said.

Indian Railway Management Service – Exam Patterns & Syllabus

As per the latest announcements released by the Indian Railways, all the aspirants who are dreaming for a promising and bright career in the Indian Railways have to prepare successfully for Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) examination. The expected exam pattern of IRMS may consists of two stages:

• Prelims Stage: Just like other competitive exams, the Preliminary examination shall be the first stage and every graduate individual with a bachelors-degree (Engineering or Non Engineering) shall be eligible to appear in the IRMS examination.
• Mains Stage and then Interview: Next stage would consist of specialized paper related to particular branch of Engineering and general studies exam for those from Non engineering branches.

There is no confirmed news regarding the pattern of the exam of IRMS, but as per the discussion of the exam and Railways & Civil Services experts, the prelims exams shall consist of those parts which are part of present ESE prelims and more weightage of current affair topics related to certain domains such as Economy, Environment, International Organisations & management along with some part of verbal aptitude, Reasoning & Quantitative aptitude.

Components of Preliminary Exam of IRMS to be conducted by UPSC

However, following are the main components every aspirant should prepare to crack Common Preliminary Exam of IRMS which shall be conducted by UPSC for the next recruitment cycle:

• Current Affairs related to Indian Economy
• Current Affairs related to Environment & Ecology
• Current Affairs related to Science & Technology
• Current Affair related to International bodies & organisation
• Policies
• Values & Ethics of professionals
• Organisational management principles
• Reasoning part
• Quantitative & verbal aptitude
• General Awareness

These are the components that may appear in the common preliminary exam of proposed IRMS. It is expected to take certain domains from present preliminary exam of ESE and also the preliminary exam of CSE. It will be somewhere a mixture of both.

Keep following us for the latest updates on IRMS Examination Dates, Criteria, Patterns and Syllabus.