Women are on top. The first two rankholders of the UPSC’s civil services examinations are women. There are five other girls among the top 20 candidates in the results announced on Monday.
While Faridabad’s Mona Pruthi is the topper, Gurneet Tej, a resident of Sahibabad in UP, has come second. At No. 7 is Archana Nair, a management trainee at the Gurgaon branch of American Express.
Pruthi, who taught English at the Maharaja Agrasen College in Delhi, says the path from William Shakespeare to IAS is not too difficult. "It needs a combination of logic, intelligence and hard work," says Pruthi, in between taking congratulatory calls on her mobile phone.
Last year, after getting selected to the IRS, she quit her job as a lecturer. Pruthi, who made it to the IAS in her third attempt, had English literature and sociology as her subjects.