Meet the 5 UPSC Toppers, Know Their Success Mantra

Hyderabad: Cracking the prestigious Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination is a dream come true for all. But, the fruit of its success comes with a lot of grilling and is taxing and needs meticulous planning.

This year, a total of 759 candidates - 577 men and 182 women were selected for appointment to various services like IAS, IPS, IFS and the allied services.

Let's have a look at the five toppers for this year.

1. Kanishak Kataria

The topper of this year UPSC exam, 26-year-old Jaipur boy Kanishak Kataria credited his parents, sister and girlfriend for his success. Son of an IAS officer, he has pursued computer science engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.

He had also topped the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in Schedule Caste (SC) category in 2010 and secured 44 rank in the overall category.

“It’s a very surprising moment. I never expected to get the 1st rank. I thank my parents, sister and my girlfriend for the help and moral support. People will expect me to be a good administrator and that’s exactly my intention,” he told news agency ANI.

Kataria had left his job at Samsung in Korea to 'serve his country'. He joined a Bengaluru-based start-up and has been preparing for the UPSC exam since them working simultaneously. This was his first attempt and he had taken mathematics as his optional subject.

2. Akshat Jain

Akshat Jain (23) secured All India Rank -2 in this year’s exam. He is a graduate from IIT-Guwahati in Design. Akshay's influence to prepare for the UPSC is his parents who are also civil servants.

His father is the Joint Director in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), New Delhi and mother, Mrs Simmi Jain, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer is the ADG of National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) in Jaipur.

He attempted the exam a month after he graduated in 2017, but could not succeed, but called it a great learning experience.

He said patience and hard work are the key to success in the civil services exam, adding that he spent 'x' number of hours preparing for the test.

The 23-year-old said that he would chalk out his syllabus that he wished to complete in the day and made sure that it was completed within the set time.

He had chosen Anthropology as his optional subject because it had a lot of application in governance.

3. Junaid Ahmed

An alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University, 27-year-old Junaid cleared the examination on his fifth attempt. He completed his engineering from Sharada University.

Junaid has chosen geography as his subject and took guidance from Zakat Foundation, an NGO working for the community upliftment.

Hailing from Nagina town in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnore district, his father is a lawyer and mother a homemaker.

He says that now that he is a civil servant, he has a sense of responsibility towards the people and would work towards adding more representation of the community in the exam, he added.

4. Shreyas Kamat

Shreyas Kamat holds a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the prestigious IIT-Bombay. This was his first attempt and he bagged the fourth rank. He had taken Anthropology as his optional subject.

He is a resident of Kishanganj near Ajmer in Rajasthan.

Before stepping into the civil services exam, he had worked with Ernst & Young (EY) for about two years and left it later to prepare for the exam full-time.

Talking to an online portal, he said that the preparation strategy was to ensure that all the topics are covered in such a way that they are able to reproduce during the exam in a concise way.

5. Srusthi Jayant Deshmukh

Bagging the fifth rank in the coveted civil services exam came as a pleasant surprise to 23-year-old Bhopal girl Srusthi Jayant Deshmukh. She is the topper among women candidates and passed the exam in her first attempt.

She had taken sociology as her subject and gained confidence when she was doing well in the mock test series.

She says she wishes to work in the field for women empowerment and education.

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