(Article) UPSC topper wants to serve rural India

Article : UPSC topper wants to serve rural India

Girls have bagged the top three ranks in the Civil Services Examination 2008 with Noida's Shubhra Saxena topping the test, results for which were declared in New Delhi on Monday.

While Sharandeep Kaur Brar has been placed second, Kiran Kaushal secured the third position.

It was the urge to serve the country's rural population that made 30-year-old Shubhra Saxena to quit her well-paid IT job four years back and prepare for civil service examinations.

"It is a very good feeling. Every person achieves victory on their own pace," an elated Saxena said, minutes after the news trickled in that she topped the 2008 civil services examination.

She attributed her feat to her "loving" parents and husband, saying they "were very much supportive when I expressed my desire to appear for civil services."

The software engineer, an alumnus of IIT-Rourkee, said she quit her well-paid IT job as she always had a urge to serve the rural population, who are deprived of even basic facilities such as education and drinking water.

"I wasn't able to serve the people when I was in the IT field. So, I decided to quit and appear for civil services examination," Saxena, who cleared the examination in her second attempt, said.

"My priorities are empowering the rural masses and providing education to them."

Born in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly, Saxena had most of her education in Jharkhand as her father was an engineer with Coal India.

A total of 791 candidates have cracked the exam for which written test was conducted in October-November last year and the interview for personality test was held in March-April this year, the UPSC said.

The candidates, who have been recommended for appointment, include 364 from general category, 236 from OBC, 130 from SC and 61 from ST group.

The topper Shubhra Saxena has done her B Tech from IIT Roorkee. This was her second attempt. Second topper Sharandeep Kaur has done her MA from Punjab University.

The top 25 candidates included 10 women. While 12 of them are from Commerce, Management, Humanities, Science and Social Sciences, nine candidates are from streams of Engineering and four from Medical Sciences.

A total of 3,18,843 candidates applied for the examination, while 1,67,035 appeared for the preliminary examination. Of them 11,849 qualified for the Mains but only 2,140 could make it to the personality test.

Courtesy:- NDTV