ONE IS from Delhi, the second from West Bengal and the third from Punjab. Two of them studied in St Stephen’s, the third is an engineer. Together, they have marked the first time in seven years that women claimed the top three positions in the UPSC Civil Services Exam.
Delhi’s Shruti Sharma topped the merit list released for the 2021 exam on Monday, followed by Kolkata’s Ankita Agarwal and Gamini Singla from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. In the 2014 exam, Ira Singhal, Renu Raj and Nidhi Gupta were top three, with Vandana Rao coming fourth.
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This year’s topper studied in Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Delhi and obtained an honours degree in history from St Stephen’s College. She joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for post-graduation before dropping out to prepare for the Civil Services Exam, mainly with the free Residential Coaching Academy (RCA) at Jamia Millia Islamia.
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Premium“My strategy was to focus on my own notes with emphasis on answer-writing practice for the Mains exam. I was happy with my performance in the exam and was hopeful of a good result but topping the merit list did come as a surprise,” Sharma (25) said, adding that she opted for history as the optional subject in the Mains.
“My father had heard about the RCA and asked me to sit for the entrance in 2019. I got through while I was pursuing my Masters at JNU. That was when my preparation for UPSC actually began. I made a lot of good friends in Jamia who helped me through this journey…the place provided an environment where I could thrive,” she said.
This was Sharma’s second attempt, and she is the first to qualify in her family. Her father Sunil Dutt Sharma is an architect and runs a construction consultancy in Delhi. Her mother Rachna Sharma is a former teacher.
She has a younger brother, and the family hails from UP — her father from Bijnor and her mother from Bulandshahr — which is why the state is her first preference for a cadre. “I was born in Bijnor and I have always wanted to work in the state. I specifically want to work in education, health and women empowerment,” she said.
Next on the toppers’ list is Ankita Agarwal who is also a graduate from St Stephen’s, and is currently training in Faridabad for the Indian Revenue Service. She qualified for the IAS in her third attempt.
“I wish to join the West Bengal cadre since I was born and brought up in Kolkata. I want to work for the upliftment of women and underprivileged children in the country. Being a civil servant will provide me with the right opportunities and resources to bring a change in society,” she said.
Agarwal, 26, studied economics in college, and her parents run a business in Kolkata.
Gamini Singla, who bagged the third rank, holds a BTech in computer science from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in Chandigarh and took sociology as her optional subject.
“After completing B.Tech I had a good job offer from a private company but I left it and kept preparing for UPSC. In my first attempt in 2020, I could not clear the prelims but the passion to serve people kept me going and I did not leave it midway,” she said.
Singla, 23, said her father Dr Alok Singla and mother Dr Neeraj Singla, both medical officers with the Himachal government, helped her a lot. “My father was the real force behind me. He read books and newspapers along with me everyday so that he could help me in preparing for important topics,” she said. Her brother Tushar Singla is a graduate from IIT-Kharagpur.
“I studied for almost 9-10 hours a day and for nearly three years since I was completely cut off from my friends and family. I did not attend any social gathering because my focus was on just clearing the UPSC…I attempted mock tests but never took any coaching from an academy. I studied on my own,” she said, adding that she “stopped using Facebook and other social media and monitored time spent on WhatsApp”.
“My focus as a public servant would be on three issues — women empowerment, healthcare and education. I feel working on these three together can be a gamechanger,” she said.
Apart from the top three, the holder of All-India Rank (AIR) 8 is also a woman: Delhi’s Ishita Rathi, who secured her spot in her third attempt.
“I did not join any coaching and prepared on my own. I only referred to basic books, some YouTube channels and The Indian Express newspaper for preparation. My parents pushed me into preparing for the Civil Services. My mother is an Assistant Sub Inspector while my father is a Head Constable with Delhi Police. They were my source of inspiration during the preparation,” Rathi said.
Rathi graduated in economics from Lady Shri Ram College and obtained her MA from Madras School of Economics. She worked for a year with a corporate house before resigning to prepare for the exam.
A total of 685 candidates — 508 men and 177 women — qualified for the Civil Services this time. In 2020, the list of qualifiers included 545 men and 216 women. A similar pattern was observed in 2019 when 632 men and 197 women qualified.
After the three women toppers, Aishwarya Verma and Utkarsh Dwivedi came fourth and fifth, respectively, overall this time.
Congratulating the successful candidates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter that they “are embarking on their administrative careers at an important time of India’s development journey, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”.
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