Kanishak Kataria, a BTech graduate from IIT Bombay, has topped the Civil Services final examination 2018, while Srushti Jayant Deshmukh is the topper among female candidates, securing an overall fifth rank.

In a statement on April 5, the UPSC announced that a total of 759 candidates (577 men and 182 women) have been recommended for appointment to various services such as IAS, IPS, IFS etc.

Kataria belongs to the SC category and qualified for the exam with mathematics as his optional subject. He did BTech in computer science and engineering in 2014 and was employed with Samsung in South Korea. He also worked as a data scientist in Bengaluru.

“I prepared by studying for 8-10 hours a day initially. In the last two months prior to the exam, I increased my efforts to put in 13-14 hours daily. It was my childhood dream to join the Civil Services,” said Kataria. He added that he followed sports - cricket, football and tennis - “whether it was exam time or not”.

The Preliminary exam was held on June 3, 2018. A total of 10,65,552 candidates applied for the exam, out of which 4,93,972 candidates actually appeared. A total of 10,468 candidates qualified for the Main exam, which was held in September-October, 2018. A total of 1,994 candidates qualified for the personality test held in February-March 2019. Among the top 25 successful candidates, 15 are male and the rest female.

Second-rank holder Akshat Jain, an engineering graduate from IIT Guwahati, said he was elated and one of the reasons why he opted for the Civil Services was to serve society. Hailing from Jaipur, Akshat’s father is an IPS officer and mother is an IRS officer, who also motivated him to join the Civil Services. “I would like to serve as an IAS officer in my home state Rajasthan,” he said.

Junaid Ahmad, who hails from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, bagged the third rank. He secured the 352nd rank in last year’s exam and is undergoing IRS training in Faridabad.

Srushti Deshmukh, who will be the first civil servant in her family, completed BE (chemical engineering) from an engineering college in Bhopal in 2018. She said she had faith in herself and that helped her clear the exam in her first attempt. “I think it is the consistency and the faith in yourself that make one achieve all goals,” she said.

Appointments to various services will be made according to the number of vacancies available with due consideration to the provisions contained in the rules for the exam, the UPSC said.

The number of vacancies reported by the government to be filled is as follows: IAS (180, including reserved category), IFS (30), IPS (150), Central Services Group A (384) and Group B services (68).

The top 25 candidates pursued subjects such as engineering, sciences, economics, law, mathematics, history, political science, public administration and commerce from premier institutions such as IITs, NIT, NLU, BITS Pilani, Delhi University, Mumbai University, Anna University and Pune University.

Optional subjects of the top 25 candidates ranged from anthropology, chemistry, commerce & accountancy, geography, law, maths, history, political science & international relations, public administration, psychology, sociology, and English literature.

The recommended candidates also include 36 persons with benchmark disability (11 orthopedically handicapped; 12 visually challenged, 11 hearing impaired and two multiple disability).