As many as 685 candidates have qualified the civil service examination 2021, results of which were announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) earlier this week.
Among them, ten aspirants were from J&K and Ladakh who made it to the prestigious examination.
According to UPSC, of the total successful candidates, 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 Commission said.
The women comprised only 26% — or 177 — of the total of 685 candidates recommended by the UPSC for appointment to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Central Services.
Shruti Sharma, the topper from Delhi, has said that she is keen on improving the state of education, health and women’s empowerment. Ankita Aggarwal (ranked second) from Kolkata wants to uplift the condition of women and underprivileged children while third ranker Gamini Singla has stated that she wants to address problems facing remote areas of the country.
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. As per media reports, a number of those who qualified the examination belong to humble backgrounds, trumping their more privileged peers by sheer dint of hard work.
Also the top three positions have been bagged by women candidates, a first after a gap of seven years. It is hailed by people and it is hoped that more and more persons from the fairer gender will make it to the prestigious examination.
The civil service has to represent all sections of the population, of which half are women, their representation in the services too must increase at all levels of the bureaucracy, starting with the highest rung.
According to the Ministry of Education, All India Survey on Higher Education report for 2019-2020, the gross enrolment ratio in higher education for the female population is 27.3 percent compared to 26.9 percent for males. All the aspirants have expressed desire to work for betterment of all sections of the society. One hopes that the aims held by these bright aspirants remain strong enough for them and they will discharge service in real sense.
