Reaching new heights, girls bagged all the top four positions in the prestigious civil services exam, according to the results announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Saturday.
Ira Singhal, a differently-abled IRS officer from Delhi, topped the exam in the general category followed by Renu Raj, a doctor from Kerala, and Nidhi Gupta, also an Indian Revenue Service officer from Delhi, who secured second and third positions respectively.
Suffering from Scoliosis, a spine-related disorder, 31-year-old Ira clinched the top position in her sixth attempt. “I am really very happy. I can’t believe this. I just prepared for the examination. I want to be an IAS officer. I want to do something for the benefit of differently-abled people,” Ira said. She had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in 2012 after she was denied induction in the IRS because of her disability. The CAT upheld her plea and directed that she be inducted in the service.
Renu Raj secured the second rank in her first attempt.
“I am extremely happy. I have been preparing for the exam for the last one year,” she told
The Pioneer over phone from Thiruvananthapuram. She works in a hospital in
Kollam in Kerala and hails from Kottayam.
Third rank holder Nidhi Gupta said that there is no substitute for hard work. Sharing her proud moment with the parents at her residence in Nawada, Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, Gupta said that India needs an integrated development that is based on the physical, social and economical development. Gupta took inspiration from her teachers and co-employees. Talking to The Pioneer, Gupta said that failure is not fatal, to achieve big dream one needs continuous effort. She is presently Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise and wants to work in Hindi-speaking regions; mainly Haryana, which has a skewed sex ratio as compared to other States.
“While taking about the collective progress, the nation is half without women. I want to work on the issues which
are directly affecting them,” said Gupta.
Vandana Rao, who too is from Delhi, has got the fourth rank. She is the topper in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. “I called up people twice to cross check whether I have made it in the exam. It is a pleasant surprise. It is really a result of hard work,” she said. Vandana had graduated from Kurushetra University in 2012.
“I want to be an IAS officer as it gives you ample scope to do something worthwhile for the country,” she said. It was her third attempt
Suharsha Bhagat, an IRS (Income Tax cadre) officer, who got the fifth position, hails from Bihar and is a Chemical Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. “Bhagat got selected in Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS) in 2011. In 2012, he took the exam again and got Indian Information Service. In 2013 exam, he got IRS (income Tax). He is posted in Nagpur,” his father Phulendra Bhagat, who is a doctor, told PTI from Bihar’s Samastipur.
A total number of 1,236 candidates, including 590 in General Category, 354 belonging to Other Backward Class, 194 from Scheduled Castes and 98 from Scheduled Tribes, have been recommended for appointment to various Central Government services, the UPSC said. The examination is conducted annually by the UPSC to select officers for IAS, IFS and IPS among others.
IAS and IPS officers are selected among others in the prestigious exam. A total of 180 candidates have been recommended for IAS, with 32 for IFS, 150 for IPS, 710 for Central Services group ‘A’ and 292 to group ‘B’ services. A total of 1,364 posts are to be filled through the civil services examination. There are 254 candidates in the waiting list.
It is the first time that the Commission has declared the final results within four days of the closing date for the personality tests or interviews, a senior official said.
The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages -- preliminary, mains and interviews -- to select candidates for the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.
The civil services preliminary examination was conducted on August 24 last year at 2,137 venues in 59 centres across the country. About 9.45 lakh candidates had applied for it but approximately 4.51 lakh appeared for the examination.
Of these, 16,933 were declared qualified for the main examination, the official said. The main examination was held in December last year and, out of the 16,933 candidates, 16,286 appeared for it, an official said.