Kerala woman tops civil services exam, says always wanted to do this

When told she had topped the civil services exam, Haritha V Kumar thought her friends were pulling her leg. "I could not believe it was true," the Indian Revenue Service probationer, who topped the CSE 2012 on her fourth attempt, said. HT reports.

When told she had topped the civil services examination, Haritha V Kumar thought her friends were pulling her leg. "I could not believe it was true," the Indian Revenue Service probationer, who topped the Civil Service Examination 2012 on her fourth attempt, said.

The Union Public Service Commission announced a list of 998 successful candidates (753 men & 245 women), with two from Kerala candidates topping the examination. Kumar trained as an electronics engineer while V Sriram qualified as a doctor from Kerala University. This was his 2nd attempt.

Women candidates retained their top positions across the general, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories. But male candidates retained a slim majority in the toppers list, bagging 13 of the 25 seats. More than half a million candidates applied for the examination out of which 2.71 lakh actually appeared.