Indian Telecommunication Service
The Indian Telecommunications Service, widely known as ITS, and earlier known as Telegraph Engineering Service Class I is one of the Central Civil Services under Group 'A' of the executive branch of the Government of India. The appointment to this service is done through Combined Engineering Services Exam held every year by Union Public Service Commission of India. The service was created to meet the techno managerial needs of the government in areas related to telecommunications. The Department of Telecommunications had been managed for years by the officers of this permanent cadre, called the Indian Telecommunications Service. The officers of ITS work under restrictions and rules of Central Civil Services rules.
The engineering officers of ITS are working in senior positions in the Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring now known as DoT Licensed Service Area, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, Unique Identification Authority of India, Central Vigilance Commission, Metro Rail Corporations etc. At present, ITS officers are also working in many Departments of the central government and state government on deputation.
Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, under the Government of India, is the Cadre Controlling Authority of the Indian Telecommunications Service.
History
Telecommunications in India began with the introduction of the telegraph. The Indian postal and telecom sectors are one of the world's oldest. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department, at that time.The construction of of telegraph lines was started in November 1853. These connected Kolkata and Peshawar in the north; Agra, Mumbai through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai in the south; Ootacamund and Bangalore. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public.
In the beginning the Indian Telegraph Department comprised operating and maintenance staff, headed by one Superintendent of Telegraphs and with three Deputy Superintendents in Bombay, Madras and Pegu in Burma and Inspectors at Indore, Agra, Kanpur and Banares. The first Superintendent was William O'Shaughnessy, who later became the first Director-General of ITD. The first India-Ceylon cable was laid in 1858. In 1865, the first Indo-European telegraph communication was effected and two years later a new cable was laid between India and Ceylon. In 1873, Duplex telegraphy was introduced between Bombay and Calcutta.
In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to establish telephone exchange in India. The permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself would undertake the work. In 1881, the Government later reversed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country. On 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange" had a total of 93 subscribers in its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.
The important year was 1905 when the control of the Telegraph Department was transferred from the PWD to the Commerce & Industry Department except for matters connected with buildings and electricity. A year later, the baudot system was introduced between Calcutta and Bombay and between
Calcutta and Rangoon. In 1907, women signallers were employed for the first time. In 1910 the technical branch came into being as a separate organisation under the Electrical Engineer in Chief. The next two years saw the introduction of Circle Scheme and decentralisation and two years later, that is, in 1914, the Postal and Telegraph Departments were amalgamated under a single Director-General. The year also witnessed the opening of the first automatic exchange at Simla with a capacity of 700 lines and 400 actual connections.
Radio telephone communications between England and India were opened in 1933; the Indo-Burma Radio Telephone service started functioning between Madras
and Rangoon in 1936; the Burma and Aden telegraph systems, which were a part of the Indian telegraph system, got separated in 1937; deluxe telegrams with foreign countries were introduced in 1937; the Bombay-Australian wireless telegraph service and Bombay-China wireless service were
inaugurated in 1942; the Bombay, Calcutta and Madras Telephone Systems were taken over by the ITD in 1943; a Telecommunications Development Board was set up; the Bombay-New York Wireless Telegraph Service was commissioned in 1944.
In the 1980s, the first satellite earth station for domestic communications was set up at Secundrabad, the Troposcatter system link with the Soviet Union was inaugurated, the first SPC electronic digital telex exchange and the first SPC analogue electronic trunk automatic exchange were commissioned in
Bombay, the Centre for Development of Telematics was established, the first mobile telephone service and the first radio paging service were introduced in Delhi, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. were set up, and the international gateway packet switch system was commissioned in Bombay. The 1980s also saw the restructuring of the P&T Department into the Department of Posts and the Department of Telecommunications, the constitution of Telecom Commission, and the reorganisation of telecommunication circles with the Secondary Switching Areas as the basic units.
Indian Telecommunications Service was constituted in 1965 as Telegraph Engineering Service Group 'A' which was renamed as ITS in 1978. Prior to this, this service was known as "Superior Telegraph Engineering and Wireless Branches of the Posts and Telegraphs Department" dating to pre-independence times. This service is primarily responsible for policy, technical, administrative and managerial functions of the government in the areas related to telecommunications.
Recruitment
ITS is an organized Group-A service for which recruitment is conducted through competitive examination called Engineering Service Examination which is a three-stage competitive examination and is conducted by the UPSC every year. Officers recruited through ESE manage diverse fields. Recruitment by UPSC to Group A Services/Posts are made under the following categories of Engineering:Appointments to ITS are made in category IV, i.e., Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering.