Kolkata: The Satyendra Nath Tagore Civil Services Study Centre (SNTCSSC) on Friday inaugurated its Composite Course for the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2026 aspirants. The ten-month offline course, which begins Saturday, will cover the Prelims, Mains, and Mock Tests.
State Home and Hill Affairs Principal Secretary Nandini Chakravorty, who attended as the chief guest, said: “There are no shortcuts to success. You have to work hard, but make it an enjoyable experience. Always smile, stay happy, meditate, exercise. Keep dreaming, the sky is the limit. Don’t settle for anything less,” she said.
Chakravorty, an alumna of Lady Brabourne College, recalled how a TV serial from her youth shaped her ambition to join the services.
“Udaan, written and acted by Kavita Chaudhary, featured her as an IPS officer who met Shekhar Kapur, a district magistrate. No one in my family was in the services, but I remember feeling a bit excited about the idea after watching the show,” she said.
“This is a service to the nation. No power or pay package can match the satisfaction and diversity offered by the civil services. It’s not just a job, it’s a journey,” she added.
SNTCSSC Chairman Surajit Kar Purkayastha said Bengal once produced a large number of civil servants, but the ecosystem had weakened over time. “We need to rebuild that ecosystem, and your participation is vital,” he told the aspirants.
SNTCSSC course director Jitin Yadav highlighted the centre’s performance in UPSC CSE 2025. Of the 4,161 candidates nationwide who qualified for the Mains, 163 were from Bengal. Among them, 72 candidates (45 percent of Bengal’s total) are associated with SNTCSSC.
“We aim to raise that number to over 100 from SNTCSSC alone and 200 from Bengal next year,” he said.
SNTCSSC Academic Consultant Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri also addressed the new batch.
The event was attended by several young civil servants, including Meghna Chakravorty (AIR 79, CSE 2024), Bratati Dutta, IAS, Md. Burhan Zaman, IDAS, and Ankita Agarwal, IAS (AIR 2, CSE 2021). All of them shared insights from their own journeys.