10 Lessons from Writing a Book

On a casual evening in July 2019, I announced publicly that I was going to write a book. When I made the announcement, I had not written a single word or a sentence for the book. Heck, I didn’t even have a clue about the book’s title, the cover, the table of contents or the topic I was… Read More »

Anudeep Durishetty

On Being a Civil Servant

Every year, on the 21st of April, India celebrates Civil Services day, to commemorate the famous address by Sardar Patel to the first batch of civil servants of India. In the speech, he called them the Steel Frame, as a reference to an enduring structure meant to build and protect a young nation. “India observes National Civil Services… Read More »

Anudeep Durishetty

UPSC Prelims Strategy by Abhijeet Sinha, IAS [AIR 19, CSE 2017]

Hello everyone, I am Abhijeet Sinha. I have secured 19th Rank in Civil Services Exam 2017 and joined the Indian Administrative Service in 2018. I gave two attempts at CSE and scored good marks in both my prelims: 163 in CSE 2016 and 152.66 in CSE 2017. My Prelims strategy was slightly different from others. I almost always attempted over 95 questions, even though I barely knew more… Read More »

Anudeep Durishetty

How to Answer GS 4 Ethics Paper in UPSC Mains

Note: This is a free chapter from my book, Fundamentals of Essay and Answer Writing. I have previously published two excerpts on GS-2 and Introductions to Essay. The book has similar detailed chapters on Essay and answer writing for GS-1,2,3,4, including the Anthropology optional. You can get the book here. GS-IV can be confounding. That’s because the questions in this paper tend to… Read More »

Anudeep Durishetty

The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS

The following is an interview with Shri Deepak Gupta about his new book, ‘The Steel Frame: A History of the IAS.’ Sir joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1974, and among his many accomplishments, he is known for his leadership role in driving the ambitious National Solar Mission. Besides his distinguished career in the IAS, he also served as the… Read More »

Anudeep Durishetty

Begin Again

The last 30 days have been eventful. I have been posted as the Assistant Collector of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district (Telangana) on 24.05.2019, a day after India elected its new union government. As I completed one month in the district, I reflected on my stay here and asked myself: What has been my learning in the past one month? After… Read More »

Anudeep Durishetty