Development Plan And Self Appraisal: Fill & Download for Free

The performance assessment system in Indian bureaucracy is a great deception, if not outright fraud.It has no objectivity in judging the performance of officers.Around 7-8 years ago, I attended a meeting in the ‘Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances’. One of the speaker explained the dichotomy between the assessment of performance of civil servants themselves and the performance assessed by the public.While all independent survey by International agencies always find Indian civil servants one of the worst in the world, the same civil servants usually get more than 95% score in their Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR). He then sarcastically said that if APAR would have been the true measurement of performance, Indian civil servants should have been the best in the world.I can’t agree with him more. I myself got in the last 10 years of my service a score of more than 9.9/10 Grade, though I was just an ordinary officer in IRS.Your APAR usually depends on your relationship with your bosses. If your boss is happy or a nice person, he shall give you 10/10 in all columns, even if you are just the average.What is proposed by Government of India is nothing new. The IAS officers have to give self-appraisal on a few more areas like.Their attitude towards weaker sections of the society.Their ability to take timely and effective decision, especially in complex, ambiguous and critical situations.Their attributes like ‘ownership of responsibilities with courage to stand up for what is right, innovativeness, track record of delivery and ability to lead a team with coordination and collaboration’.I am sure every officer should be able to write something in these columns, which can be assessed as 10/10 by their superiors.Most of these columns are already there in Central Service APAR forms.For example, I had myself been writing self-appraisal about ‘attitude towards weaker sections of the society’ for several decades.There is also nothing new about the assessment of integrity i.e. “financial integrity” and “moral integrity”. You may, however, be surprised to know that Indian civil servants, who are considered to be one of the most corrupt in the world, always get integrity certificate from their bosses every year officially in their APAR, without which they can never be promoted.There is also nothing new for civil servants to indicate at least four domain assignments like social development, internal affairs and defence, industry and trade, public finance and financial management, natural resource management and personnel and general administration, governance reforms and regulatory system, among others. Similar columns are already there in Central Services like IRS.Hence, such additional features in APAR are not going to make any difference to the IAS officers.If the Government of India has any guts, let the APAR of the officers be assessed by the people who are actually using their services or by an independent agency or by experts.If IAS officers alone would assess IAS officer’s APAR, it is like scratching each other’s back or blind men leading other blind men.It is not going to make any difference in the performance of the Indian civil servants.Reference: Alert for IAS officers, aspirants! Now Modi government plans this big change for appraisals of top officials

General appraisal cycle is financial year followed by companies. i.e. Jan - Dec for most MNCs and Apr-Mar for Many Indian companies.The appraisal cycle consists of various phases as followsObjective setting at begining of cycleMid year appraisalSelf-appraisalManager AppraisalFunctional Head appraisalIf required, update of Objectives based on mid-year assessmentEnd year appraisalSelf-appraisalManager AppraisalFunctional Head appraisalDevelopment plan of associatesRevision of Pay as per final year appraisal rating.

Dear Aspirants,Let me rephrase this question to “Can civil services be cracked with dedicated and preserved effort in 8 months” and the answer is definitely and a very big “”YES”.However, it requires certain basics to start with, will answer them in pointers i.e. Non -academic & Academic aspects :Non- Academic Aspects:Belief in yourself : This competition unlike other competitions requires a multidimensional aspects of preparation i.e. thought process development, writing skills, presence of mind, acquaintance with social milieu around you and further knack to converge them at your peak.Be through with syllabi and Pattern of examination: This process where you acquaint yourself with competition can help you to optimise your preparation almost by 70–80% which you can reduce yourself.Awared & Conscious mind: Newspaper reading in these months that too making notes simultaneously and doing some introspection and self appraisal regularly will help you to do course correction and prepare for any negative externalities.Make your own plan: There are plenty of resources both online & offline as a guide to crack civil services, many of them replete with do’s and don't and way forward. It's good read them, get some insight and motivation but ultimately what works is your own plan. So make a plan and stick to it.Insulate yourself from negative externalities: Every one around us will have something to offer in form advice , criticism,comparison and demotivation at times. Keep your plan with yourself and don't share with others that you are preparing. There will be times when you will be tempted to share yourself, be cautious here. Idea is get the positivity, hope, optimism and insulating from all negatives around you.Take regular breaks while preparation: Few hours of break every week is necessary to refresh and rejuvenate your mind.Academic AspectsStick to Basic books initially: NCERT are the best book to start initially for 2–3 months. Then standard books selectively can be referred.Writing Skills: This should one of the area where you should put effort right from day 1. Start with basic questions given in NCERT then previous year papers at least past 5 years.Newspaper reading: Thorough reading of newspaper covering range of areas like social issues,economic issues, governance issues, international events, important people in news and related events. Cover editorials and other important articles from “The Hindu” regularly. Initially it will be little difficult but eventually you will adapt to it.Refer previous years papers regularly: Both prelims and mains papers should be covered along with topics. Let's suppose you covered “ Banking” topic in economics then check your comfort and accuracy from previous years papers.This list can go on endlessly so calm your mind , develop composure and get on with it.Best wishes