JOIN USChennai girl takes away Service exam crown
Women seem to be bridging the aspiration gap with men if the results of the 2010 Civil Services Examination, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), are any indication. The topper this year is Tamil Nadu’s law graduate S Divyadarshini, competition followed by Sweta Mohanty, a computer engineer from Hyderabad.
Divyadarshini, who did BA, BL (Hons) from Dr Ambedkar Law University in Chennai, cleared the examination in her second attempt while the second-ranker, Mohanty, a Computer Science B tech from GRIET, JNTU, Hyderabad, cleared the exam in her third. Mysore’s Sindhu B took the 17th spot in the rankings list released by the UPSC on Wednesday.
Speaking to a TV news channel, Divyadarshini said she expected a good rank but never dreamed of topping, adding she wants “to make a difference in the government and fight corruption.”
R V Varun Kumar, who secured third rank, is a BDS degree-holder from Ragas Dental College, Chennai. Like Mohanty, Kumar cleared the tough three-tier examination in his third attempt.
According to the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, a total of 920 candidates, including 203 women, were selected for the civil services, which attracts the largest number of candidates from all states of the country. Of the 5,47,698 candidates who applied for the 2010 Civil Service Examination, 2,69,036 appeared for the preliminary examinations which was conducted on May 23, last year.
After 12,491 candidates qualified for the main written examination held in October-November last year, 2,589 aspirants were short-listed for the personality test conducted in March-April 2011.
The top 25 successful candidates include 20 men and five women. Of the 25, 15 are engineers, five have medical science background and the others belong commerce, management, humanities, science and social sciences streams.
Eight of the 25 toppers made it to the merit list in their first attempt, four in their second, nine in their third, three in their fourth and one in the fifth shot at the examination.
Of the 920 candidates recommended for appointment to the IAS, IFS, IPS and other Central services, 28 are physically challenged, a category which includes 14 orthopaedically challenged, five visually impaired and nine with olfactory impairment.