This year, the top three positions of the Union Public Service Commission, UPSC, have been secured by girls including topper Shruti Sharma followed by Ankita Agarwal at second position, and Gamini Singla secured the third position.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) decalred the final results of Civil Services, 2021 on Monday where all the top three positions were secured by girls. Delhi’s Shruti Sharma topped the list (AIR-1) followed by Ankita Agarwal (AIR-2) and Gamini Singla (AIR-3).
This year, 685 candidates have qualified the prestigious examination out of which 244 are from the general category while 73 from Economically Weaker Sections, 203 of Other Backward Classes (OBC), 105 Scheduled Caste (SC) and 60 from the Scheduled Tribes (ST).
Here's what you need to know about the topper girls' journey so far and what do they aspire to achieve professionally.
All India Rank-1 holder Shruti Sharma is an alumna of St. Stephens College of Delhi University. She later joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to pursue post-graduation but eventually dropped out and joined Delhi School of Economics at Delhi University for her post grads.
She prepared for the Civil Services exam at Jamia Millia Islamia Residential Coaching Academy (RCA).
Sharma said that she wanted to serve the country by joining the Indian Administration Services (IAS).
Elated by her success in such a prestigeous examination, Sharma said she was confident about qualifying the exam but topping the merit list came as a surprise.
Kolkata girl Ankita Agarwal was extremely certain and determined to achieve this feat and thus kept her preparations quite balanced. She kept herself motivated and passionate about clearing the UPSC exam with flying colours.
"My parents supported me a lot throughout my journey," she said. Moreover, they never burdened her with their dreams or forced her to study hard. "My parents were never forceful about my career plans," she said.
Gamini Singla, 23, is the third rank holder of UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021, and an alumna of Punjab Engineering College (PEC) Chandigarh.
Gamini Singla hails from Anandpur Sahib, Punjab. She pursued B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering (CSE) and completed her graduation from PEC back in 2019.
Singla said that joining Indian Administrative Service (IAS) was her childhood dream.
She completely relied on self-study and had been preparing at home since 2020 onwards.
“My family, especially my father has helped me a lot emotionally and in studies as well,” she said, adding that her father used to read the newspaper for her so that she could save her time.
“She was the class representative and she got a job offer during campus placements but she did not join because she wanted to pursue civil services,” said Professor Rajesh Bhatia from Punjab Engineering College (PEC).
PEC director Baldev Setia said that it is a proud moment for the institute that one of its alumni is among the toppers of UPSC civil services examination.