Delhi has the best coaching institutes, faculty and study material, say UPSC aspirants

NEW DELHI
The studious atmosphere, best teachers and comprehensive study material — these are some of the main attractions for UPSC aspirants to enrol with coaching centres running in Delhi, students from across the country studying here told HT on Monday.
They said that they, however, have to put up with adverse conditions, such as high rentals and having to go without food sometimes, to fulfil their ambitions.
Satyam Pandey, a 26-year-old aspirant who came to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj in 2020, said he took coaching from “one of the best” institutes.
Pandey said that students living here somehow manage the funds for coaching, either by taking loans or parents mortgaging or selling properties due to high costs. “We pay such high rents to stay in the area. The brokerage is separate. We pay about ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 for a single bed accommodation, which is sometimes even in basement without any ventilation. But there’s no choice because of lack of options in our states,” he said.
The aspirants simultaneously expressed shock at the death of three of their peers in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, saying it could have been any one of them to die in similar circumstances, as they study in these basements without considering their safety.
Twenty-six-year-old Dhruvil Shah, who came to Delhi from a small town in Gujarat, studies at one of the four most sought-after institutes in Karol Bagh. When asked for the reason for shifting to the Capital, he told HT that there weren’t good coaching centres in his state.
“I live in a very small town and if I had to leave my parents, why should I not study at the best institutes which are only in Delhi?” Shah, who paid an admission fee of ₹2 lakh, said.
When asked what makes institutes in Delhi the best, he said: “The faculty.”
Pandey said: “The stakes are high when you are preparing for UPSC. Every attempt matters. I couldn’t have risked it in Kannauj, where there are barely any institutes or teachers who could teach. These institutes have the best faculty who have expertise in particular subjects. In small towns, there is no infrastructure and no qualified teacher.”
Students said that while the faculty members do not crack UPSC, they gain expertise in a subject over years due to making multiple attempts and eventually making the switch to teaching. “All these institutes advertise based on the faculties they have. There’s no chance our small towns can offer this,” Pandey said.
Sai Sadguru Charanjee, 24, came from Hyderabad in 2022 and completed his coaching in 2023. Like thousands of others, he decided to stay here and prepare on his own. “This place provides study material that you don’t easily get in other states. Here, everyone is studying, therefore, there is an environment one gets to study and it’s contagious,” he said.
Students stay here for years after completing their coaching till they either crack the exam or finally run out of attempts, Dixita Mistry, a 34-year-old mentor at an institute, said, adding she studied at one of the institutes in Delhi and became a faculty after she ran out of attempts. “I am an example. I don’t stay here but I have stayed here for long,” she said.
“We know its all becoming commercial… we know they are making money… but we also know that this place offers the place and education which other states do not,” Vaibhav Pandey, who came here from Jhansi two years ago, said.