Indian Railway Personnel Service

The Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) is a cadre of the Group-A services of the Government of India. The officers of this service are responsible for managing the Human Resources of the Indian Railways which has a work force of about 1.4 million employees.

Recruitment
The recruitment to the cadre is done through the Civil Services Examination.The first recruitment to the cadre was done by UPSC in the year 1980.Prior to that some officers of sister cadres had joined the service on option basis. The present advisors are from such groups.The list of officers of this cadre can be seen in their web site [1].

The selection consisting of written and viva-voce test which is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) of India along with other Group A Services like IAS and IPS IRS etc. The UPSC is responsible for recruiting middle and top-level bureaucrats for the Government of India.

Organisation

At the apex level of the Ministry of Railways,Government of India,the Railway Board Member Staff is the highest level post, who also happens to be the Ex-officio Secretary to Government of India.Currently he is assisted by two Advisors, viz: Advisor(Staff) and Advisor(IR), who are in the rank of Additional Secretary.Below them are a group of Executive Directors,Directors,Joint Directors and Deputy Directors who work at Railway Board level.The present Member Staff is a non-IRPS officer.

Similarly at the 16 Zonal Railway level the HR department or Personnel department as they call in the railways,is headed by a Chief Personnel Officer or CPO.CPOs are also posted in the major production units/factoris of Indian Railways.