đȘIndia's "IAS" Curse
[#24] Tale of Chaos: Indian Youth's obsession with 'Service' is contagious. Unconditional obsession with 'Service' makes you a RAT. Doesn't matter if you win, you'll still be a RAT. Are you one?
Morning iKyu-riskers! Yes, I am guilty as charged for not being consistent with these beautiful tabloids of fun documentary-style business content.
Thereâs too much noise, and we together wage war as the Anti-dote of Clickbait Journalism. So, welcome back!
đšBeen little occupied with a lot of ongoing projects (running 2 companies is dangerously beautiful). Plus I am prepping my YouTube (so a lot of scripting, filming, editing on my plate). But itâs no excuse of robbing you out of such brain-seducing business content, again.
So updating, more like tweaking iKyuâs newsletter experience slightly; trimming out a little bit more noise, less brain-twisting storytelling and more focus on the purity of what business content really stands for. Will cover great themes, topics and angles â that really zings the business brains of yours.
Yours, Brutally.
Letâs get startedâŠ
With great power comes pathetic experience of dealing with responsibility. Felt familiar? As a young 19-20 year old, why would you like to jump into the filth called âbeing an adultâ.
This is your time to awake, arise and not stop till you die. Of your youthful exuberance. Or wait, the dilemma of âwhat will happen once Iâm off the hook of my parents sheltersâ? Hits hard at 2 AM.
Adulting is hard.
But not as hard as deciding, how to dodge being an adult. Harsh, but true.
The moment your light inside you starts to dim, you tend to find the next very escape. Todayâs kid knows what they donât have to do. Bombarded with MCQs of living a life. Makes them impotent of choices and thus kids wishing ultimately of âbreaking freeâ. From what? It will be figured out soon.
THE (K)EY NOTES:
The (K)inK: The IAS Clout
Focus folks, âlivingâ a life. A privileged stance? haha, it is. Because the story of choosing what you can do with your life is only with those youngsters who donât have to think twice about running their household. They are not the victim here.
So the underprivileged are? Nope. They are too busy thinking about clearing prelims, these philosophy of life doesnât apply on this âsectâ of people.
For a this cursed sect, dreams are passed on as inheritance. If the father failed at achieving that dream, the next of kin is in line.
Inheritance of an obsession.
Cursed sect is grinding, out of choice. With less to NO life left in them. Why?
For a reprised dream. A gamble. This cursed sect is the backbone of our nation; and still we are doing nothing about it.
The Cursed Sect of Youth.
Itâs filthy if you think about it: India's fixation with government jobs, particularly the âdreamâ of Indian Administrative Service examination is toxic.
IAS is a predatory circus. You get devoured for existing. And if you donât, who bothers.
One can always look beyond this circus and accept their place in the world. Why fight for an aspirational dream, thatâs driven by nothing but bets.
You bet your life. You bet your youth. You bet your every inch of the skin.
The movie â12th Failâ might be motivational to a select few. But if you too got blinded by the shine of its national award, there was a hidden dark truth you all wonât see; they donât want you to see.
The over-glorification of labour, packaged as handwork.
India is a country that which operates on labour-transaction. Thereâs no real productivity, only labour intensive tasks and alms like incentives.
Thatâs what Indiaâs youth is fighting. An obsession, a dream thatâs prostitutionalised by the modern day narrative.
Letâs brutally breakdownđȘ the psyche behind why Indian youth, who scream about unemployment rate rising, but themself are stuck with skillsets of 1920s, and waging a war against a metaphysical dream and praising the colonial bastardisation we call bureaucracy of India; high time we call out this blind gamble, in todayâs reprise edition of inK by iKyu.
The (K)inK.
THE IAS CLOUTâŠ
I was scrolling through LinkedIn last week when I stumbled upon a post that made my stomach churn. A 26-year-old engineer, 4 attempts deep into UPSC, celebrating his "learning journey" while his batchmates were solving everyday problems, traveling the world, and actually living their twenties. I mean what the actual fuââŠ.
This is called inspiration? Itâs perspiration of sickness.
Insanity disguised as perseverance. We need to talk about the elephant in the room that's slowly crushing India's entrepreneurial spirit, one coaching center at a time.
Letâs dissect the psychology behind this nationwide epidemic that's turning our brightest minds into professional exam-takers and our most ambitious youth into government job zombies.
đȘANATOMY OF NATIONAL DELUSION
Picture this: In 1947, when Sardar Patel established the Indian Administrative Service, government jobs were genuinely prestigious. The British had left, and we needed Indian bureaucrats to run a newly independent nation. Fast forward 79 years, and we're still stuck in that colonial mindset, treating government employment as the ultimate career achievement.
But somewhere between independence and Instagram, this aspiration mutated into an addiction.
Infinite Loop Psychology: Dr. Kahneman would have a field day studying UPSC aspirants. They're living textbook examples of cognitive biases gone wild:
Sunk Cost Fallacy: "I've already spent 3 years preparing, I can't quit now." This becomes 5 years, then 8, then a decade of diminishing returns.
Survivorship Bias: Every success story gets amplified while millions of "failures" disappear into corporate jobs, carrying silent trauma of unfulfilled dreams.
Social Proof: When your entire peer group is chasing the same dream, questioning it feels like heresy.
Economics of False Hope: The UPSC preparation industry in India is worth âč50,000 crores annually. Let that sink in. We've built an economy around helping people NOT get jobs. Coaching centers in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar are minting money while their students burn through their parents' retirement funds and their own prime years.
Here's the math that coaching institutes won't show you:
Average preparation time: 4-5 years
Average expenditure: âč8-12 lakhs
Opportunity cost of lost salary: âč40-60 lakhs
Probability of success: 0.07%
Expected return: Negative infinity
Brain Drain from Within: While Silicon Valley poaches our IIT graduates, we're voluntarily draining our own talent pool. Engineering graduates who could be building the next Flipkart are instead mugging up medieval Indian history. MBA students who could revolutionize business are memorizing government schemes that'll be obsolete by the time they potentially join the service.
This isn't just individual tragedy; it's economic sabotage at scale.
Instagram and YouTube have weaponized UPSC motivation. Every success story becomes viral content, creating a highlight reel that obscures the statistical reality. "Day 1,247 of my UPSC journey" posts get thousands of likes, reinforcing the delusion that persistence alone equals eventual success.
The algorithm doesn't show you the 99.93% who never make it.
Alternative Reality Check: While India's youth chase government jobs, here's what's happening globally:
23-year-old Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion
Stripe's Collison brothers became billionaires before 30
TikTok's Zhang Yiming built a $60 billion company from scratch
Not because they were inherently smarter, but because they weren't trapped in examination halls during their most creative years.
Every year spent preparing for UPSC is a year not spent:
Building actual skills that matter in the real economy
Starting a business that could employ hundreds
Learning technologies that define the future
Creating value instead of memorizing bureaucratic procedures
IAS, or Indian Administrative Services is a lucrative job. Not because of stability or government stamped uniform, or the lifetime pension. Itâs the lewd power that comes with it.
This represents one of the world's most extreme competitive cultures, creating a Rs 58,000+ crore coaching industry that thrives on a 0.2% success rate while devastating millions of lives.
Mathematics of Failure: The numbers surrounding India's UPSC obsession are genuinely shocking. Over 13 lakh candidates apply annually for fewer than 1,000 positions, creating a success rate lower than winning many lotteries. Among serious aspirants who dedicate years to preparation, 90% require multiple attempts, with the average successful candidate taking 3.6 attempts over several years.
What makes this particularly devastating is the human cost: 35 students die by suicide every day in India, with 2,248 deaths specifically attributed to exam failure in 2022 alone. The coaching hub of Kota witnessed 26 suicides in 2023, representing one of the highest rates on record. These aren't just statisticsâthey represent young lives lost to a system that has become fundamentally predatory.
The demographic profile reveals the depth of this crisis. Engineering graduates comprise 41% of successful candidates, indicating how India's technically skilled population is being diverted from productive sectors into government service preparation. Meanwhile, the English-speaking advantage has intensified dramatically, with non-English speaking candidates dropping from 48.4% of selections in 2008 to just 8.7% in 2017.
Job Worship: The cultural roots of "sarkari naukri" obsession run deep in Indian society, creating what experts describe as a multi-generational programming toward government employment.
Government jobs are viewed as ultimate status symbols that provide immediate social elevationâa government employee receives "huge respect" and becomes a preferred marriage prospect, often commanding higher dowries and better matrimonial matches.
This obsession stems from what researchers identify as a security complex unique to Indian society. Indians prioritize job security over growth potential, viewing government positions as providing "lifetime security" compared to private sector "uncertainty." The phenomenon is reinforced by family dynamics where success in government exams becomes a measure of family honor, with failure bringing shame to the entire family lineage.
Shocking psychological patterns emerge among repeat aspirants. Many develop trauma bonds with the exam process, making it psychologically difficult to quit even after multiple failures. Others experience identity fusion, completely merging their sense of self with becoming a civil servant and losing identity beyond the examination. The sunk cost fallacy becomes particularly powerfulâafter investing years and lakhs of rupees, aspirants feel compelled to continue despite mounting mental health costs.
Research reveals that 53.3% of UPSC aspirants rate their mental health as "poor or somewhat poor," with students attempting the exam four or more times showing significantly worse psychological outcomes than first-time aspirants.
đȘDEVASTATION COSTS
The economic impact of India's IAS obsession represents one of the country's most significant but underrecognized drags on growth. Conservative estimates suggest an annual productivity loss of $2-3 billion from youth withdrawn from the productive workforce during prime career-building years.
The scale becomes clear when examining specific data: Tamil Nadu alone has over 100,000 individuals staying unemployed while studying full-time for civil service examsâa number exceeding participation in state vocational training programs. Over 25% of recent college graduates in Tamil Nadu appeared for state civil service exams in 2013, indicating massive resource misallocation across the country.
This phenomenon directly undermines India's demographic dividend. With a working-age population reaching 65% by 2041, India has the longest demographic window of opportunity globally (2005-2055). However, youth economic participation has declined to just 37% in 2022, partly due to millions trapped in exam preparation cycles during their most productive years.
The brain drain statistics are equally alarming. 600,000+ Indians renounced citizenship in the past five years, with 23,000 millionaires leaving since 2014. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has 26% immigrant-founded startups led by Indians who left domestic opportunities, and 38% of doctors in the U.S. are of Indian origin, creating critical domestic shortages.
India's innovation ecosystem suffers significantly. Despite ranking third globally in startup ecosystems, 67% of startup founders report talent shortages for building world-class companies. The country's GERD remains low at 0.7% of GDP, partly due to talented individuals choosing civil service preparation over research and development careers.
đȘCOACHING-PEX PREDATOR
The UPSC coaching industry has evolved into a sophisticated exploitation mechanism worth Rs 58,088 crores and projected to reach Rs 1,33,995 crores by 2028. This growth occurred while success rates remained virtually unchangedâa clear indicator of systematic exploitation rather than value creation.
Drishti IAS alone serves approximately 15,000 students and generated Rs 405 crores in revenue in FY24 (30.6% year-over-year growth), while the overall success rate remains below 0.2%. The mathematical impossibility becomes clear: individual institutes claim 200-400 selections annually, but only ~1,000 candidates succeed nationwide across all backgrounds.
The coaching hub ecosystem reveals shocking exploitation patterns. In Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar, students spend Rs 10,000-15,000 monthly for basic accommodation and food, often living in rooms divided into three "units" or spaces under stairwells. The 24/7 culture includes tea stalls operating through nights and libraries open until 3 AM, creating an artificial environment that normalizes unhealthy lifestyle patterns.
Star faculty members earn crores annually while retired bureaucrats command Rs 2 lakh per month for part-time mentorship roles, indicating how the industry monetizes aspirational psychology. The business model is fundamentally predatory: 70% of online admissions come through aggressive sales teams using false promises and artificial urgency tactics.
Following recent safety crackdowns in 2024, over 30 coaching institutes were sealed in Mukherjee Nagar alone, leading to a 35% drop in local business revenues and revealing the economic vulnerability of an ecosystem built on systematic failure.
The regional analysis reveals shocking disparities in civil service access. Uttar Pradesh leads with 28-29 officers annually, followed surprisingly by Rajasthan with 22 officers despite its smaller population. Meanwhile, Bihar and West Bengal lag significantly despite large populations, indicating structural disadvantages in the system.
The urban-rural divide has intensified dramatically. English-speaking urban candidates now dominate selections, while rural aspirants face systematic exclusion through language barriers and infrastructure disadvantages. The socio-economic data from SECC 2011 reveals the depth of inequality: only 4.6% of rural households pay income tax, and 75% of households earn less than Rs 5,000 monthly, making the Rs 10+ lakh preparation costs prohibitive for most families.
Upper caste Hindus (22.3% of population) own 41% of total wealth, while Hindu Scheduled Tribes (7.8% of population) own only 3.7% of total wealth. This economic inequality translates directly into civil service access, perpetuating rather than reducing social disparities through supposedly merit-based selection.
The migration patterns are equally concerning. An estimated 3-4 lakh people migrate to Delhi and Mumbai annually, with significant portions being exam aspirants who often never return to their home states, creating permanent brain drain from rural areas.
The mental health implications represent perhaps the most shocking aspect of India's civil service obsession. Beyond the 35 daily student suicides nationally, the psychological damage extends to millions of failed aspirants living with depression, anxiety, and shattered life plans.
Sleep deprivation affects significant percentages of aspirants, with many sleeping less than six hours nightly for years. 41.7% report work/life problems due to depression, sadness, or anxiety, while social isolation becomes normalized as aspirants withdraw from relationships and family interactions.
The support system failures are systematic. Despite charging thousands in fees, most coaching institutes lack qualified mental health counselors. Until Supreme Court guidelines in 2024, there was no systematic mental health support in coaching hubs. Families provide financial support but lack emotional intelligence to handle aspirants' psychological needs.
Recent Supreme Court interventions mandated mental health counselors in all institutions with 100+ students and established zero tolerance policies against public ranking and humiliation practices. However, these measures came only after multiple tragic incidents highlighted the crisis.
The post-COVID digital transformation accelerated industry growth while maintaining exploitative practices. The online coaching market grew from USD 437.64 million in 2024 to a projected USD 1,934.11 million by 2033 (16.55% CAGR), enabling geographic expansion without proportional improvement in outcomes.
AI integration has created new tools like PadhAI, which scored 175/200 in UPSC Prelims 2024 compared to ChatGPT's 75, and platforms like SuperKalam offering personalized mentoring. However, these technological advances primarily serve to create new revenue streams rather than improve success rates.
The marketing sophistication has increased dramatically. Coaching institutes now employ professional sales teams, celebrity faculty as brand ambassadors, and targeted digital advertising. False advertising became so prevalent that the government imposed Rs 5 lakh penalties on multiple institutes in 2024.
Comparative analysis with other countries reveals how India's system creates uniquely extreme obsession. Singapore's locals-first policy requires companies to advertise jobs locally for 14 days before hiring foreigners, creating diverse opportunities. China has broadened recruitment to include overseas graduates from 73 universities and offers 24 academic fields in demand.
European models emphasize skills over examinations, with Germany's Section 81a fast-track procedures and multiple entry pathways to public service. These systems avoid single-examination dependency while maintaining merit-based selection.
The key differences lie in private sector strength and multiple career pathways. Countries with robust private sectors reduce government job obsession, while skills-based immigration and diverse recruitment methods prevent the lottery-like competition seen in India.
đȘDEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND DISASTER
India's civil service obsession threatens to waste the world's largest demographic dividend. With youth unemployment at 10% (ages 15-29) compared to 3% overall population, millions of young Indians spend their most productive years in futile exam preparation rather than contributing to economic growth.
The coaching industry employment figures reveal the scale of misallocation: while the industry employs lakhs in support services, it diverts millions more from productive sectors. Female workforce participation remains at just 24% compared to 80% in developed countries, partly due to families investing in exam preparation rather than practical skill development.
Economic experts warn of a "demographic disaster" if the youth bulge isn't productively employed. India's potential GDP growth faces constraints from misallocated human resources, with demographic dividend historically contributing up to 15% of overall growth in advanced economies.
TL;DR
India's IAS examination obsession represents a national emergency hiding in plain sight. With over 1 million candidates annually competing for fewer than 1,000 positions, the system creates one of the world's most inefficient resource allocation mechanisms. The Rs 58,000+ crore coaching industry profits from systematic failure while destroying millions of lives through false hope and predatory practices.
The psychological toll is devastating: 35 daily student suicides, widespread depression, and families bankrupting themselves for dreams that succeed less than 0.2% of the time. The economic impactâ$2-3 billion in annual productivity loss, brain drain affecting 600,000+ emigrants, and demographic dividend underutilizationâthreatens India's development trajectory.
Urgent systemic reform is essential. This requires diversifying career pathways, strengthening private sector opportunities, regulating the coaching industry, and educating families about alternative paths to success.
Without intervention, India risks wasting its greatest assetâits young populationâon a system that has become more about exploitation than opportunity.
India's civil service system has evolved from a merit-based selection mechanism into a predatory ecosystem that consumes dreams, destroys lives, and undermines the nation's economic potential.
The time for reform isn't comingâit's overdue.
~vivan.