Motivation coupled with study-life balance necessary for success, says Ballari ZP CEO

Chief Executive Officer of the Ballari Zilla Panchayat Mohammed Haris Sumair tells has said that having motivation coupled with good study-life balance, perseverance and patience is important to achieve success, particularly in competitive examinations.

He was addressing a large gathering of students at the UPSC Aspirants’ Meet organised by The Hindu Civil Services Aspirtants’ Club, in association with Shankar IAS Academy, at Ballari Institute of Technology and Management (BITM), in Ballari, on Wednesday.

The 2021 batch IAS officer, hailing from Bidar, shared how the police station near his house motivated his elder brother to become IPS officer, which, in turn, motivated him to prepare for the civil services examination, which he cracked in his second attempt.

Mr. Sumair recalled how small steps taken by IAS officers in his hometown and the changes they initiated, motivated him to prepare for the civil services examination and how as an engineering graduate, he is being able to bring about technology driven changes in governance. The young officer elaborated on how village libraries in Ballari district were helping students appearing for various examinations.

“The administrative service is a unique job, which gives power along with responsibility to initiate changes to transform the lives of a large number of people. The administrative service is the right choice for you if you want to contribute to the society and have the motive to serve the society”, he said.

However, he reminded them about the difficulties involved as the preparation itself was a tough journey, which sometime might take years. “As the competition is intense, you need to have patience along with smart work. Reading lot of books is not important, but reading less number of books more number of times is required”, he said.

Mr. Sumair told the participants that they would have to shed the misconceptions surrounding the civil services. “It is better not to study alone spending long hours sitting at one place. Build a friends’ circle of similar interests. Maintain a healthy study-life balance. Acquire the required skill sets”, he advised the students.

He told the students to understand that student life and work life would be different, and unless they had the matching skills, it would be difficult to succeed in whichever field they chose.

To elaborate on how an IAS officer could bring about changes, he quoted the examples of rural water supply scheme in Sandur villages, the newly set up chilli processing unit in Shiraguppi taluk of the district and others.

Premanand from Shankar IAS Academy gave a brief outline of the civil services examination, including the examination pattern, the competition involved, the optional subjects and other details.

He said that as the competition was intense, it was important that they had a proper plan, including a plan to manage failure. He said that around 30% to 40% of the civil services aspirants make repeated attempts to crack the examination because of they love to serve the society.

Interaction

In the interaction that followed, students asked several questions to the young IAS officer about the preparation for the competitive examination, whether he committed any mistakes during the preparations, the lessons he learnt, when to start preparing for the examination, whether to study alone or get coaching, whether any government schemes were available for getting coaching and others.

Earlier, principal of BITM Prof. Yadavalli Basavaraj thanked The Hindu Group for taking the initiative of creating awareness about civil services examination. Assistant General Manager (Circulation) Anand Malage briefed about The Hindu initiatives aimed at benefitting the student community. Head, Placement Relations Sham R.K. was present.