Targeting NRIS for civil services

Coaching institutes now turn their gaze on students abroad

Hoping to touch a patriotic chord, private coaching academies are increasingly looking at Indians settled abroad and their children and selling them the idea of taking the civil services exam to serve the motherland as a career bureaucrat.

It may be a novel idea for the NRI community — those with Indian citizenship of course — but some institutes are confident that it is one that will hit home.

The New Delhi-based Chanakya IAS Academy, for instance, last month held an interaction session in Dubai for NRI civil services aspirants.

“The concept of preparing their children to serve as Indian bureaucrats excited many NRI parents in the Gulf,” said A.K. Mishra, chief of the academy.

“Many NRIs and their children agreed that joining Indian civil services was an ideal way to serve their motherland,” said Mishra, who is also a motivation and success guru.

Cash-rich segment

According to Mishra, civil services exam coaching was a multimillion rupee industry, fuelled by over 500 institutions spread across the country. Metro cities, especially New Delhi and Chennai, have a high density of such spe- cialised service providers.

The fees for coaching ranges from Rs10,000 (Dh145.7) to Rs100,000, depending upon the duration and features of the capsule on offer.

For civil service coaching academies, attracting the NRIs, a cash-rich segment, makes good business sense.

“Enrolling NRIs means getting cash-rich students for our specialised services. Also, they are not a very price sensitive group,” said Deepti Sharma, who manages the IAS Training Academy in Jaipur.

“Traditionally, NRIs have sought professional courses like engineering, medical and MBA in India. The civil services don’t really figure high on their agenda,” she said.

But it could be changing with coaching institutes turning their gaze on NRIs as a special segment of students.

“Engineering and MBA students have also been on our radar,” Sharma said.

The nationality criteria for the Union Public Service Commission-organised exam for the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service lays down “citizen of India” as the basic requirement.

Union Public Service Commission Member K.K. Paul said: “We do not have an exam centre abroad... the basic eligibility is citizen of India.”

A subject of Nepal or Bhutan or a Tibetan refugee, who came over to India before January 1, 1962, with the intention of permanently settling in India, can also appear in the civil services exam.