As the Union Public Service Commission declared the results of the 2023 civil services examinations on Tuesday, two women candidates made it to the top five. They are Donuru Ananya Reddy (AIR 3) from Telangana and Ruhani (AIR 5) from Haryana. Ananya graduated with a BA (Honours) in geology from Delhi University's Miranda House College. After her graduation in 2021, she started preparing for the UPSC examinations in Hyderabad. She cracked the examinations in her first attempt. “I was introduced to the UPSC by my grandfather. So I always had that seed in me. When I started looking for career opportunities after completing my graduation, I realised that civil services would provide me with a very unique blend—I can serve my country and I will also have the opportunity to have administrative duties. This blend attracted me towards the UPSC,” she told indianexpress.com. UPSC Civil Services 2023 Result | AIR 9 | AIR 4 | Check educational qualification of AIR 1 to 10 | AIR 18 | Meet last 10 years' toppers | How to check result | Restart or look for other options Ananya aims to join the Indian Administrative Service. “I was interested in the IAS and the IPS, but my first preference will be the IAS because of the diversity of work experiences that I will get to be a part of.” Intimidating interview Asked about how her interview round went in the civil services final examination, Ananya recalled how she stayed confident despite feeling intimidated by the five-member board. “There was a lot of grilling from one of the board members. I was constantly grilled about Hyderabad, such as about how I would make it a sustainable city. It felt very ambiguous, but I was still very confident. I ensured that I was very thorough with my answers with all the other members of the board, and I did not crumble under that pressure,” she said. Read More | Rank 1 Aditya Srivastava | Rank 9: Nausheen | Advice to UPSC aspirants One thing that Ananya followed was not sticking to any one course for UPSC examination preparation. She thinks no one strategy can help all candidates and that aspirants should therefore pick, choose and alter whatever strategy suits them best. “Do not blindly follow whatever other toppers tell you. Every candidate should make a customised plan for themselves and follow what suits them best. I did not stick to conventional preparation methods and kept changing my strategy as per the requirement of that moment. “I would advise aspirants to first identify their area of strengths and weaknesses, and then accordingly divide their preparation plan and time,” she said. Ananya’s younger sister achieved 99.99 percentile in JEE Main 2024 session 1. Her father is a businessman and her mother, a homemaker. A total of 1,016 candidates (664 men and 352 women) have qualified in the examinations and been recommended for appointment to various services.
