Donuru Ananya Reddy from Telangana secured third place in UPSC exam

New Delhi: A Telangana woman stood in the top three in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as per the results declared for the Civil Services Exam 2023 on Tuesday. She topped in her first attempt itself.

Aditya Srivastava secured the top rank, and Animesh Pradhan and Donuru Ananya Reddy secured the second and third ranks respectively.

Ananya is from Mahabubnagar district and graduated from DU Miranda House and studied BA honours in Geography. She stood third in the rank with anthropology as her optional subject.

Will take administration close to people:

Disagreeing with the view that the civil services examination is a hard one to crack, she said it is, however, a challenging exam and it is important to have a strategy for the preparation.

Ananya used to study for 6-8 hours a day for the exams but increased the study hours to 12-14 a day when the tests were round the corner. "Most important is to have a strategy. If we have a strategy of breaking down the syllabus into parts and completing it in a timeframe, it becomes easy," she told.

"The only plan I have is to take the administration closer to people and work in a people-centric manner," she said. On tips for civil services aspirants, Ananya said every exam takers should prepare their plan as per their strengths and weaknesses, without blindly following others.

"Also, don't ever give up. This examination is full of challenges, mentally or otherwise also. So, keep your calm and don't give up," she said.

1016 candidates cleared

A total of 1,016 candidates cleared the examination and have been recommended for different Central government services. The Civil Services Exam is conducted annually in three stages - preliminary, main and interview - by the UPSC to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS). The top 25 candidates in the civil services 2023 examination comprise 10 women and 15 men. Of the total recommended candidates, 30 are persons with benchmark disability -- 16 orthopedically handicapped, six visually challenged, five hearing impaired and three with multiple disabilities.

Toppers

Srivastava qualified the examination with electrical engineering as his optional subject. He has done his graduation (Bachelor of Technology) in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, according to the results of the civil services examination 2023 announced by the UPSC on Tuesday.

Animesh Pradhan, a graduate (BTech) in computer science from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, secured the second rank with sociology as his optional subject, it said.

Fourth-rank Ramkumar (27) has a bachelor's degree in Architecture from the College of Architecture in Trivandrum. He had anthropology as his optional subject. The native of Cochin in Kerala has mentioned "heritage walks" and "hatha yoga" as his hobbies. He got 121st rank in the 2022 exam.

Ruhani, who has a BA (Hons) in economics from St Stephens College, Delhi University, secured the fifth rank with economics as her optional subject. The 28-year-old Gurugram resident 159th rank in the 2022 examination. Her parents work with the Delhi government as teachers.

Inputs from PTI