Women make history, bag top 4 ranks

New Delhi: A total of 685 candidates have cleared the 2021 Civil Services Examination, results of which were announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Monday – with the top four ranks being secured by women. Shruti Sharma, Ankita Agarwal, Gamini Singla and Aishwarya Verma have secured the top four ranks, respectively, in the examinations.

Elated by her success, Shruthi Sharma said she was confident about qualifying the exam but topping the merit list came as a surprise.

Sharma wants to serve the country by joining the IAS. She said her "extremely supportive" parents and friends helped her in her journey which required a lot of hard work and patience. "Credit goes to everyone who was involved in my journey especially my parents.

They were extremely supportive and friends who guided me," she said. Sharma graduated from St Stephens College of Delhi University and joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for her postgraduation.

She later dropped out of JNU and joined Delhi School of Economics at Delhi University to pursue her postgraduate degree.

Of the total candidates who cleared the examination – 508 are men and 177 women. Among those successful, 244 are from general category, 73 from Economically Weaker Sections, 203 of Other Backward Classes, 105 Scheduled Caste and 60 from the Scheduled Tribes, the UPSC said. The Civil Services Examination is conducted annually by the UPSC in three stages — preliminary, main and interview — to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

The written or main part of the examination was conducted in January 2022 and the interviews were held in April and May this year, it said.