Ankita Agarwal

Topper Story - ANKITA AGARWAL Background

Ankita Agarwal, who got 2nd rank in UPSC - 2021, was declared by the Commission on 30th May 2022. Ankita hailed from West Bengal and completed her honors from St. Stephen's college of Delhi University (DU) in 2017. UPSC released the final list of the Civil Services 2021 exam, 685 candidates recommended by the Commission, and surprisingly top three positions were acquired by women (1st time in UPSC history).

Let’s look at the Success story of the 2nd Topper (UPSC CSE 2021 AIR 2). Ankita cleared the UPSC exam on her 3rd attempt. In her 1st attempt, Ankita secured 239th rank, and she qualified for Indian Revenue Services. A 2020 batch IRS (Customs and Central Excise) officer, Ankita Agarwal, is currently under probation at the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) in Haryana's Faridabad.  Ankita Agarwal's father's name is Manohar Lal, and he is a businessman in Kolkata, and her mother is Kiran Agarwal. Ankita's father migrated to Kolkata from Bihar after her birth. She completed her early education in West Bengal.

Before preparing for the UPSC exam, Ankita worked for a consultancy firm i.e., Dalberg, for one year just after graduation. But Ankita left their corporate job as she was not satisfied with her job and wanted to work on women's empowerment and social justice. To fulfill her goal, she started UPSC exam preparation. Her optional subject was Political Science and International Relations, her first preference was IAS, and her second was IPS. Whenever she gets free time, she reads books and plays basketball. As per Ankita, the significant challenges are Poverty, Unemployment, Climate Change, and Gender Inequality not only in India but in other countries also facing these issues.

When Ankita was admitted to college, she didn’t have any target to crack the UPSC exam; she had the vision to get a private job. But this job didn’t give them satisfaction and urge to contribute to the society for the betterment of the common people, and she wanted to work on a grassroots level; she decided to prepare for the preparation of UPSC exam.

Ankita was focused on UPSC preparation, and she quit all social media platforms. As per Ankita, these platforms deviate from the target and create more distracting instead useful for students preparing for competitive exams like UPSC. Parents, friends, and other family members play an important role because they motivate you and help to overcome tension and distress. True friends understand your priority and respect your time, and they will stand with you whenever you need them most.

Ankita's message for UPSC aspirants is that you should not prepare UPSC exam just for power, but you should have a strong reason behind to opt Civil Services. The "WHY" should be very clear in aspirants' minds; this "WHY" gives motivation even in your struggling days. Commitment, Hard Work, Focus, Belief, Consistency, patience, and self-motivation are the most important elements during UPSC preparation. As per Ankita, instead of counting the number of hours aspirants put into UPSC exam preparation, it is a qualitative study that matters most, even though 6-8 hours of study are more than sufficient.

Ankita, not satisfied after getting 2nd rank in UPSC, as per her real challenges, now began to work for women empowerment, people welfare,  primary health care, and school education sectors. Selection in UPSC put an enormous responsibility to work for society.

UPSC Aspirants can learn Lessons from Ankita Agarwal

• Success comes to those who patiently and consistently work towards it.
• Trust yourself with a positive mindset.
• You can achieve anything, whatever you think, with a clear vision.
• Don’t let others’ success rush you, be patient as everybody has a different timeline.

Here is the list of UPSC – 2021 Topper: