Women bag top 3 UPSC ranks; 685 clear civil services exam

Shruti Sharma, an alumna of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College who lives in the Capital and is from Bijnor district in Uttar Pradesh, has topped the final examination for the civil services, the Union Public Service Commission announced on Monday. Three of the top five positions were secured by women in the test that determines entry to the country’s premier government positions.

“Congratulations to all those who have cleared the Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2021,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted after the results were announced. “My best wishes to these youngsters who are embarking on their administrative careers at an important time of India’s development journey, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.” India is celebrating its 75th year of Independence this year.

Nearly 25% or 177 of the total 685 successful candidates were women. Apart from Sharma, who is a Delhi resident, Ankita Agrawal from Kolkata and Gamini Singla from Punjab’s Anandpur Sahib stood second and third, respectively. Aishwarya Verma and Utkarsh Dwivedi secured the fourth and the fifth positions, respectively. The top 25 candidates comprised 10 women and 15 men.

The commission has recommended the 685 candidates for appointment to various services, whereas the number of vacancies is 749. Last year, the UPSC selected 761 candidates against 836 vacancies.

“The recommended candidates also include 25 persons with disability,” an official said, requesting anonymity.

Since Anna Rajam Malhotra became the first woman to join the Indian Administrative Service in 1951, the percentage of women in the civil services has been rising steadily.

“In another decade or so, it won’t be surprising if women outnumber the men,” said Sanjeev Chopra, former chief of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, the government institute that trains civil servants.

On the gap between the number of vacancies and successful candidates, Chopra said it remained to be seen whether the posts in the core services were filled. “We will have to wait for more data,” he said. “At least the core services must all be filled.”

Topper Shruti Sharma qualified the examination with history as her optional subject. She graduated with honours in history from Delhi University. Ankita Agarwal, an economics graduate, secured second rank with political science and international relations as her optional subjects.Gamini Singla, a BTech in computer science, stood third with sociology as her optional subject.

From the general category, 224 candidates cleared the exam, 73 from the economically weaker section, 203 from other backward class category, 105 from the scheduled caste category and 60 form scheduled tribes. A reserved list of 126 candidates has also been declared.

There are 180 vacancies In the Indian Administrative Service , 37 in the Indian Foreign Service, 200 in the Indian Police Service, 242 in the central services Group A, 90 in Group B and 749 overall.

The preliminary exam was held in October last year, while the mains were held in January. The mains exam result was announced on March 17. Those who cleared it were called for interviews between April 5 and May 26.

More than a million candidates applied to take the examination, out of which 508,619 appeared. A total of 9,214 candidates qualified in the mains written examination, which was held in January, while 1,824 candidates qualified for the personality test.

The next preliminary exam will be held on June 5.