Candidates from myriad backgrounds crack civil services exam

Coming from a town with a low literacy rate, Karnataka’s UPSC top ranker Rahul Shinde wants to reach out to children in schools and educate them about the opportunities available for them.

Shinde secured a rank 95 in the UPSC examinations. The results were announced on Friday.

Rahul, who completed his schooling from Bidar, pursued engineering before beginning his UPSC preparation.

Having graduated from IIT Bombay in 2014, Shinde worked for two months before he decided to dedicate his time to pursue the Civil Services Exam. At present, he is undergoing the Indian Forest Services Training in Dehradun.

“I got selected the previous time and was hoping for a higher rank. My father is the first graduate in my family circle and he is my inspiration to work hard. I have seen poverty and the literacy rate from where I hail is really low. Addressing this would be my primary interest,” he said.

Shinde moved to Delhi to prepare for IAS.

Swetha M from Bengaluru—bagged the 119th rank this year— who is an engineering graduate, was motivated to pursue her civil services by seeing another IAS officer run the show.An alumnus of the BMS college of engineering, Swetha pursued her Electronics and Communication engineering degree and worked for two years before she began preparations full time.

“I went to attend my sister’s CET counselling. It was then that I saw Rashmi V Mahesh, an IAS officer manage the counselling so efficiently. I was motivated by looking at her and understood how important a role that was. I have not met her. That was one time that I saw her and she has been my inspiration ever since,” said Swetha. For this topper, it was peer discussion that helped her prepare better.

She added that it was with her parents inspiring her to leave what the others called a “stable job” and chase her dreams that have her successful today.

Dr T Shubhamangala has scored a rank of 145. A practising gynaecologist, she realised on the job that there was very little that she was doing to help the society.
“Being a gynaecologist, I understood that I could only treat the visible part of the diseases that patients had. The social and infrastructure challenges are in fact major factors that need to be addressed. Hence I decided to study for UPSC,” she said.

Dr Shubhamangala is also an author of gynaecology textbooks. “There was also a point where I felt a need to do something more. I had lived my profession to the fullest. Hence the idea,” said the 34-year-old that she decided to chase her dreams mindful that age would be a bar later.