Nari ‘Shakti’: UPSC exam topper, No. 2 & 4 women; Delhi man 5th

NEW DELHI: Women bagged the top two slots in Civil Services Examination 2024, with Shakti Dubey from Prayagraj, UP, acing the list of recommended candidates, and Harshita Goyal, a chartered accountant from Vadodara, Gujarat, ranking second.
The third spot went to a male candidate — Dongre Archit Parag, a B Tech from Vellore Institute of Technology and a resident of Pune, Maharashtra — even as yet another woman, Shah Margi Chirag, an engineer from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, took the No. 4 slot. Delhi boy Aakash Garg, who lives in Rohini and completed his B Tech from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University here, bagged the fifth rank.

Of the total 1009 candidates recommended for various elite services like the IAS, IPS etc, 284 or 28% are women and 725, men. Of the top 25 ranking candidates, 11 are women. Their educational qualifications are in diverse fields like engineering, humanities, science, commerce, medicine and architecture and from premier institutions like the IIT, NIT, JNU, University of Delhi and University of Allahabad.
Topper Shakti Dubey, who holds a B.Sc degree from University of Allahabad, struck gold in her fifth attempt at CSE, conducted by the UPSC. Her father Devendra Dubey, a sub-inspector in UP Police, disclosed that Shakti, a 28-year old who has done dissertation work on cancer therapy, had not enrolled in any coaching institute and aced the exam with intensive self-study and perseverance.
“It feels surreal, and I am just trying to absorb the feeling. It’s a dream I have had for a long time,” Shakti, who is currently in Delhi, said while speaking to TOI.
No. 2 rank-holder Harshita Goyal told TOI she cleared CSE in her third attempt, after failing to get past even the prelims stage in her first two attempts. “I lost my mother a few years back. My father, who works for a private company, has been handling all the household chores since, so that I could single-mindedly focus on my studies and preparation,” she said. Harshita, a chartered accountant, said she wants to work for women's upliftment and children living in slums after joining the IAS, .
Parag, a B.Tech in electrical and electronics engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Tamil Nadu, had philosophy as his optional subject. He cleared the exam in his third attempt.
Shah Margi Chirag, a B.E. degree-holder from Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad, secured the fourth rank with sociology as her optional subject. Just like topper Shakti, this was her fifth attempt.
Aakash Garg, the only candidate from Delhi in the top five, shared that he had failed to clear his prelims in his first attempt but made it to the selected candidates list in his second attempt.
The civil services (preliminary) examination 2024 was conducted on June 16 last year. Around 9.9 lakh candidates applied for this examination, of which only 5.8 lakh (approximately 59%) actually appeared.
A total of 14,627 candidates qualified for appearance in the written Main examination held in September 2024. Out of these, 2,845 candidates qualified for the personality test or interview, which were held between January 7 and April 17 this year.
Out of the total successful candidates, 335 are from the general category, 109 from the economically weaker sections, 318 from other backward classes, 160 from scheduled castes and 87 from scheduled tribes, according to a statement issued by UPSC.
The government has reported 1,129 vacancies -- 180 in IAS, 55 in IFS, 147 in IPS, 605 posts in different central Group A services and 142 in Group B services -- to be filled through the civil services examination 2024, it said.
The recommended candidates also include 45 persons with benchmark disability.
The candidature of 241 recommended candidates has been kept provisional, the UPSC said, adding that the result of one candidate has been withheld.
Another 230 successful candidates have been put on a reserve list, the commission said.