Kanishak Kataria, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and the son of a Jaipur-based Indian Administrative Service officer, has topped the civil services examination. An engineering graduate from a university in Bhopal, Srushti Jayant Deshmukh, is the topper among women candidates, the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) said on Friday.
Akshat Jain, an engineering graduate from IIT Guwahati, who came second, is also from Jaipur. His father is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer while his mother is an Indian Revenue Service officer (IRS).
Kataria, son of Rajasthan-cadre IAS officer Sanwar Mal Verma, cleared the UPSC exam in his first attempt. “My written examination and interview went well but I did not expect to top the examination,” he said.
He belongs to the scheduled caste category and qualified the examination with mathematics as his optional subject. He completed his B Tech (computer science and engineering) from IIT Bombay about four years ago and got placed in a multi-national company in South Korea. He worked there for one-and-a-half years and then worked in a company in Benguluru for a year. In early 2018, he shifted to Delhi to prepare for civil services exam.
“During my job abroad, I thought by joining civil service I can do a lot and about a year ago I quit by Bangalore job. I took coaching from an institute in Delhi for about seven months to improve my basic knowledge about the examination and then did self-study at my home,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“During my job abroad, I thought by joining civil service I can do a lot and about a year ago I quit by Bangalore job. I took coaching from an institute in Delhi for about seven months to improve my basic knowledge about the examination and then did self-study at my home,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Woman topper Deshmukh, who secured an overall fifth rank, is the daughter of an engineer father and a schoolteacher mother. “It is consistency in studies and faith in oneself that helps one achieve one’s goals,” Deshmukh, an M.Phil in chemical engineering, said. Srushti cleared the examination in her first attempt. Her father is an engineer with a private company and mother a housewife.
Jain, an engineering graduate from IIT Guwahati, said he was elated to be among the toppers and that he will like to serve as an IAS officer in his home state Rajasthan. “Like my parents I also wanted to join civil service,” he said. His father DC Jain is posted with the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Junaid Ahmad, the third UPSC topper, is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, working at National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN), Faridabad. He now aspires to join Indian Administrative Services (IAS). This was his fifth attempt of the UPSC examination. Junaid did his BTech from Sharda University, Noida, graduating in 2013.
In a statement, the UPSC said a total of 759 candidates (577 men and 182 women) have been recommended by the commission for appointment to various services such as IAS, IPS, IFS among others. The top 25 candidates comprise 15 men and 10 women. Recommended candidates include 36 persons with disability.