In India, people are crazy about government jobs. Earlier the key reason behind the passion of Indian for a government job was a pension scheme but now this scheme has also but still Indians prefer government jobs over private.  Government jobs are considered as secured jobs this is why job seekers are keen to know about new opportunities to work with the government sector. Like many others, if you are too looking for government jobs then you should know the difference between state and central level jobs.

In India, the power is divided between the state and central government. This division is based on the concept of cooperative federalism according to this neither state nor central government is the subordinate to others.  Both governments have to implement, run and manage the offices and functions.

In order to manage the work, both governments need employee hence they release the recruitment notification. The central government of India and states’ government together work for the welfare of Indian citizens. Both governments have divided the rights.  Here you can have a look at the division of the department between state and central government.

Departments under Central Government 

The central government has more power than the state government.  The power of Central Govt is exercised mostly and readily on items present in Union list Via Indian Parliament. This list includes defence department and armed forces, arms and ammunition, atomic energy, foreign affairs, railways, shipping and navigation, airways, posts and telegraphs, telephones, wireless and broadcasting, , banking, insurance, regulation and development of mines, mineral and oil resources, elections, audit of Government accounts, constitution and organisation of the Supreme Court, High Courts and union public service commission, income tax, custom duties and export duties, duties of excise, corporation tax, taxes on capital value of assets, estate duty, terminal taxes and few others.

Departments under State Government

Following departments come under the state government; law and order, police forces, healthcare, transport, land policies, electricity in the state, village administration, etc.

Difference between UPSC and State PSC Jobs

UPSC and State PSC both offer government jobs to the Indian citizens. But there is a difference between the job responsibilities, salaries and nature of work in jobs offered by UPSC and State PSC.  The difference between UPSC and SPSC jobs is described here.

·         Basic Difference

UPSC is an abbreviation of Union Public Service Commission. It’s a constitutional body and organized by the central government of India. This commission is responsible for the recruitment on higher and more responsible posts.  

SPSC is the abbreviation of State Public Service Commission. The rules regulation and nature of work may vary from one State’s PSC to another. This commission was formed to handle the recruitment of state-level employees.

·         Work-Related Difference

The work area is limited for the employees recruited under the State PSC and the work area is vast for the employees of UPSC. But still, the UPSC recruited officers couldn’t interrupt the work of State PSC officers.

Job seekers who got selected for UPSC can be posted anywhere in the country. The candidates who get selected for State PSC will get posted anywhere within the state only. 

Another difference related to work is UPSC organizes the examination for the recruitment in central government departments as mentioned above whereas State PSCorganizes the recruitment examination to take the suitable candidates onboard for the departments comes under the state government.  In short, we can say that the scope of work in UPSC is much larger than the State PSC.

·         Designation to offered

Another difference between UPSC  and State PSC is UPSC recruits the officer on following department including IAS, IPS, and IFS; Indian Medical Services, Indian Engineering Services, Indian Engineering, Armed Forces, Special Class Railway Apprentices and in Finance department of the central government, Geoscientist, Geologist Services and other.

IAS is one of the most prestigious posts in India and its exam is organized by UPSC. Examination for other reputed jobs like IFS and IPC is also conducted by UPSC. The exam for civil services is conducted by the UPSC every year and the success rate in this exam is 0.3%.

Posts like DSP, Deputy Collector, SDM, Assistant Director, ADM, are filled under the State PSC examination. The success rate is higher in State PSC than the UPSC.

·         Rules and Regulation

State PSC follows the rule set by their respective states in terms of relaxation in the upper limit of age but in UPSC examination general rules remain the same for all exams. The rule of State PSC may vary from one state to another but UPSC follows the standard rules for all the recruitment examination.  

·         Exam Pattern

UPSC also has the criteria of a number of attempts according to this candidate from general category have 6 attempts to clear the exam, for OBC 9 attempts and candidates belonging to SC/St category can try till their upper age limit.

But in State PSC there is no concept of a limited number of attempts. If government job seekers fulfill the eligibility criteria of the job then he can apply for it.

Now let’s talk about the preparation for both of exam. There is no big difference in preparation strategy for UPSC and State PSC apart of only one. The difficulty level of civil services exam conducted by UPSC is higher than the exams conducted by State PSC. 

For all the posts according to the requirement, the difficulty level of examination is decided. In state PSC the questions related to that state are asked like rivers, a mineral found in the state, etc whereas in UPSC the questions related to national level asked like any rived related to any state or important events of history, etc.

In UPSC exam concepts based questions are asked whereas in State PSC exam the fact-based questions are usually asked. Rest all the exam pattern remain same, like UPSC, state PSC also has three phases of a selection of any candidates such as Prelims, Mains and Personal Interview.

The State PSC exams are conducted in the state’s language like for Maharashtra the exam will be conducted in Marathi. In UPSC exam will be conducted in English and if you want then you can choose to write it in your regional language.

·         Difference in Rank

The last but not the least difference between UPSC and State PSC is the UPSC exam is conducted for rank 1 officers and state PSC exam is organized to recruit the rank 2 officers.

Winding it Up

So this article may have cleared your confusion about UPSC and State PSC and you must have understood how both exams are different.  Though both of exams are different in terms of offering the roles and responsibilities we would suggest the UPSC exam aspirants appear in the state PSC exam ofyour state as well.

As we stated above, the exam pattern is almost the same for both of exams so might be you perform well and get a State PSC job before the UPSC one. 

Applicants who are preparing for the UPSC exam can clear the State PSC exam with fewer efforts bout those applicants who are preparing for the State PSC exam and want to clear UPSC exam, they will have to put more efforts in their preparation.