Human development

V.P. GUPTA of Raus IAS Study Circle has been a friend, philosopher and guide to many successful civil servants. He has a philosophy behind his work: to enjoy the journey of life. And his focus is on learning and education and bringing a different approach to the business.

How long has Raus IAS Study Circle been in the business and how have you contributed to making better bureaucrats?

The Study Circle came into existence in 1953. Its aim has not only been to help students qualify for the IAS, but to make them better human beings, honest, sincere and hard-working public servants devoted to the general good of the people. Thus our effort is aimed at all-around development of personality of the students and not at mere transfer of information on the subjects taught.

Do you have any unique method of teaching? Why should a student come to Raus rather than go elsewhere?

At the Study Circle, the students get to study in an atmosphere that brings out their best. There is an environment of real and meaningful learning besides encouragement to trust in ones own ability. This is difficult to find at other places. Hence, the Study Circle experience helps bring out their leadership qualities and other skills required to become administrators of the country.

What is the unique selling proposition of your institute?

The faculty of the Study Circle handle all subjects with great ease and expertise. In our long experience, we have seen that there is a great demand for our courses on Public Administration, History, Geography, Sociology, Commerce, Economics, Law, Political Science and Psychology besides the General Studies and Essay papers, which are compulsory.

Are the notes given by your institute sufficient to crack this high-profile examination?

The Study Circle gives complete notes to the students for all the subjects taught. Here the idea is not to flood them with irrelevant information but to provide them with useful, specific and result-oriented material. This is appreciated by the students.

How does Raus help students handle the pressure?

I have always said that learning about learning is real learning. We emphasise on three things: effective observation, effective reading and effective listening. Listening is a very difficult task as our minds tend to travel a lot. So, we take our students through a psychological training programme that helps them assimilate and analyse facts better.

Second, we stress on optimisation of attention. We understand an interpreted version of what we listen to. But as objectivity is necessary to crack the exam, our teaching focusses on aspects that keep interpretation to the minimum.

How do you do this?

By just being aware of it. If both the teacher and the student are aware of these problem areas, you compensate for the break in attention. And then, you try to create a link between these chains of spans of attention. The leakages can be compensated thus. For instance, our techniques of mind mapping, single-page note-making, power notes, and so on, impart knowledge to the students in a visual sense, which helps them remember better.

What criteria do you have for selecting teachers?

Only educators who display the exceptional qualities required for handling the needs of the students preparing for such a tough exam are selected.

How do you foresee the role of your coaching institute in an economic regime where the role of the state seems to be reducing?

As the scope of Indian economy expands, we foresee an increase in the need for government services too. Hence, we feel there is going to be an increase in the role of the bureaucracy in the near future for a well-supervised and orderly expansion of the Indian economy.