Bihar officers come together as PRAM IAS to help aspirants crack civil services exams

For hotel management graduate Mohit Raj, it was a six-year-long journey before he cleared the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), a state-level exam for civil services posts. 

In the time that it took to fulfill his ambitions, Mohit and a few others, who were all working towards the same goal, recognised that there was a significant gap in the accessibility of facilities, mentorship and guidance for the exam. 

“Most of the resources are centred in Patna and coaching [can be very expensive],” Mohit tells SocialStory. 

Mohit, along with other officers Abhijeet Raj, Rushda Rehman, Ujjawal Kumar, and Divya Prakash Asthana, started PRAM IAS in June this year as an online platform to help aspirants crack the civil services exams. 

All of the founding members have cleared the selections round in June 2021 and are now placed in different services. Abhijeet is a supply officer, Rushda a section officer, Mohit a revenue officer, Ujjawal a probation officer while Divya and Mohit are revenue officers.

 “We named it PRAM because we saw ourselves helping to push other people on the journey,” says Mohit.

Mohit recalls that during his preparation, he had reached out to another officer for some guidance but did not receive a response from him. According to Mohit, there is often a barrier that prevents officers from being accessible to aspirants. 

PRAM IAS hopes to overcome this problem.

“No one really cared about people from remote areas, they have humungous dreams but weren’t getting the guidance or mentorship needed to move ahead,” says Mohit about what drives their mission.

As a testament to their efforts, Gaurav Singh, the topper of the 65th BPSC exam is one of their students. 

Officers making officers

In less than half a year, PRAM’s YouTube channel has already garnered more than 10,000 subscribers. However, Telegram continues to be PRAM’s primary platform which connects aspirants with officers who can answer their doubts and help them prepare for different stages of the exam. They also have Facebook groups and, in the coming weeks, look to establish a presence on Twitter as well.

With affordability in mind, 90% of PRAM’s resources are free of cost but some elements such as tests are priced between 10-15 rupees. The money is used to develop the YouTube channel and compensate the technical team who make thumbnails and type the content. 

Run on a voluntary basis, PRAM IAS depends on the efforts of the people who are willing to spare some time to help others. “Whoever has qualified mains, helps with the prelims, whoever has completed interviews, helps with mains,” he says. 

As per government regulations, the officers do not receive any monetary compensation for their efforts. “There are many other IAS officers too who are running similar initiatives individually, like IAS Ranjeet Kumar Singh’s YouTube channel,” Mohit notes. 

Using their networks, the team was able to start off by getting eight to ten officers to make videos for their platform. Now they have over 50 officers who help with mock tests, interview preparations, and coaching. 

With platforms like YouTube filled to the brim with coaching and competitive exam content, there is a race for attention with clickbait thumbnails and thumb-stopping content. But, Mohit says that as officers they still need to be reserved with the type of material they push out, “So we don’t compromise on quality.”

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The platform hopes to expand its offerings in the future. 

“We have started it as State Public Service Commission Exam Guidance for now. As soon as we will be joined by more IAS and IPS officers we will try to expand it further,” Mohit remarks. 

It isn’t just academic support that PRAM IAS offers, the team has also lent a hand to people who need help navigating social issues. They’ve spoken to girls’ parents who have had apprehensions about them taking the exam. “It’s a basic level revolution, just an idea that we are trying to nurture,” says Mohit.