School toppers (1996-2015): Who’s who — and where
Amid soaring cut-off marks based on Class 12 Board exams, as the government, in tune with its new National Education Policy, sets up a panel to explore a national test to rejig the college admission process, the findings from the investigation are pointers to the challenges ahead.
Tracking India's toppers: India’s national school board toppers over 20 years. 1. Sankalpa Bhattacharjya
Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1996
Partner at PwC India; BE (Hons) in EE from BITS-Pilani and MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. LIVES IN: Gurgaon
2. Rohit Charles Fernandes
Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1996 Senior Software Engineer with Google India; did B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT-Madras and Master’s and PhD from Cornell University.
Read | 20 years on, where are the Board toppers? Over half are abroad, most in science and technology
LIVES IN: Bengaluru
3. Rishi Raj Singh
Cambrian Hall, Dehradun
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 1997
Assistant Vice President at Genpact incharge of digital transformation initatives; studied B.Tech at IIIT Allahabad and MBA at XLRI Jamshedpur. LIVES IN: Noida
4. Shalini Prasad
De Nobili School, Mugma, Dhanbad
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1997
Vice President (Finance) at British Petroleum looking after electric vehicle charging and customer offers; graduated from SRCC with B.Com (Honours) and is a qualified CA. LIVES IN: London
Also Read | NEP 2020: Key takeaways from National Education Policy
5. Chaitra Chandrasekhar
Sophia High School, Bengaluru
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 1998
Partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman; has two Bachelor’s degrees in management and computer science and engineering; and a Master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.
LIVES IN: New York
6. Kiran Gopinath
Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Thiruvananthapuram
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1998
Cardiologist at NIMS Medicity; did MBBS and MD from CMC, Vellore, and DM from Government Medical College Trivandrum.
LIVES IN: Thiruvananthapuram
7. Somnath Bose
St. Patrick’s Higher Secondary School, Asansol
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1998
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and staff anesthesiologist at HMS’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; did his MBBS at Medical College Kolkata, MD at AIIMS and Residency in anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. LIVES IN: Boston, USA
8. Prem Karthik S
Vikaasa School, Madurai
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1998
Principal at Daugherty Business Solutions helping Fortune 500 companies deliver IT transformation initatives; has a B.E. degree in computer science from Thiagarajar College of Engineering and MS in Software Systems from BITS-Pilani. LIVES IN: Greater Chicago Area, USA
9. Vartika Bhandari
St. Mary’s Convent Inter College, Allahabad
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 1998
Senior Staff Software Engineer at Google; completed B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur and PhD in Computer Science from University Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
LIVES IN: San Francisco Bay Area, USA
10. Pushpraj Shukla
Methodist High School, Kanpur
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 1999
Partner Director of Machine Learning at Microsoft; completed BTech from IIT Kanpur and MS Computer Science from University of Texas, Austin. LIVES IN: San Francisco Bay Area, USA
11. Karuna Ganesh
Maneckji Cooper Educational Trust School, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 1999
Physician-scientist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; earned BA in Biochemistry, MA in Medicine, PhD in Molecular Biology & MD from Cambridge University. LIVES IN: New York, USA
12. Anoop Menon
Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School, Thrissur
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2000
Recently quit as Assistant Professor of Strategy at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, to co-found a stealth AI startup in New York City; BA in Economics and Psychology from Amherst College and PhD in Strategy from Harvard Business School. LIVES IN: New York, USA
13. Bikas Saha
St. James’ School, Kolkata
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2000
Platform architect at Adobe; completed Bachelor’s and Master’s study in computer science and engineering from IIT Kharagpur. LIVES IN: Mountain View, California, USA
14. Yashodhan Kanoria
Campion School, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2001
Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business Decision, Risk and Operations Division at Graduate School of Business, Columbia University; BTech in EE from IIT-Bombay, PhD from Standford University. LIVES IN: New York, USA
15. S Mahavir Agarwal
Ispat English Medium School, Rourkela
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2002
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Staff Psychiatrist and Clinician-Scientist in the Schizophrenia Division at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto; MBBS from JIPMER, Puducherry, and MD and PhD in Psychiatry from NIMHANS, Bangalore. LIVES IN: Toronto, Canada
16. Vibhor Jain
Boys’ High School & College, Allahabad
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2002
Principal Member of Technical Staff at Global Foundries, where his role is in R&D of semiconductor technologies; BTech-MTech Dual Degree in EE from IIT Kanpur, PhD from University of California Santa Barbara. LIVES IN: Vermont, USA
17. Rahul Sharma
Brightlands School, Dehradun
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2003
Product Manager at Google; BE (Honours) in electronics and instrumentation from BITS Pilani, PGDM from IIM Bangalore. LIVES IN: Seattle, USA
18. Vineet Kumar
City Montessori School, Lucknow
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2003
Strategy Manager at Google; Bachelor’s in CS and Engineering from BITS-Pilani and PGDM from IIM Lucknow. LIVES IN: New York, USA
19. Megha Singh
La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata
Topped: Class 12 ISC, 2003
Owns a Tanishq showroom and a venture called ‘Creative Circus’ that does pop-up events; BSc Management Science from University of Warick. LIVES IN: Kolkata
20. Kshitij Garg
St. Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2004
Equity Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs; Bachelor’s in Computing from National University of Singapore, and Economics from Delhi University, PGDM from IIM-Rohtak. LIVES IN: Bengaluru
21. Rishabh Singh
Kendriya Vidyalaya, ONGC, Dehradun
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2004
Research Scientist with Google X; B.Tech in CS from IIT-Kharagpur, MS and PhD from MIT. LIVES IN: San Jose, California
22. Aditya Galgotia
The Modern High School, Dubai
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2004
Facilities Engineer at Imperial Oil Resources; B.E in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University, Montreal.
LIVES IN: Calgary, Canada
23. Rahul Lakhmani
Seth MR Jaipuria School, Lucknow
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2004
Working in family business; B.E. in CS from BITS-Pilani, PGDM from IIM-Ahmedabad. LIVES IN: Lucknow
24. Kaustav Majumder
The Blue Bells School, Gurgaon
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2005
General Surgery Resident at University of Minnesota; MBBS at AIIMS. LIVES IN: Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota, USA
25. Sagar Rakshit
Laurels School International, Indore
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2005
In second year of his postdoc fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Mayo Clinic in USA; MBBS from AIIMS and Residency in Internal Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. LIVES IN: Cleveland, USA
26. Anand Venkatraman
PS Senior Secondary School, Chennai
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2005
In neuroendovascular training at University of South Carolina; MBBS from AIIMS, Neurology Residency from University of Alabama and a Neurocritical care fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
LIVES IN: South Carolina, USA
27. Subhankar Mohapatra
DAV School, Chandrasekharpur, Odisha
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2006
IAS officer (2018 batch) of Odisha cadre, posted as Sub-Collector, SDM, Kandhamal, Odisha; MBBS at SCB Medical College, Cuttack. LIVES IN: Kandhamal, Odisha
28. Vipul Gupta
DAV Public School, Thermal Colony, Panipat
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2006
Preparing for civil services and doing MA Economics from IGNOU; BTech in EE from Delhi College of Engineering, and was a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University. LIVES IN: Zirakpur, Punjab
29. Abhishek Kar
Stewart School, Bhuwaneshwar
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2006
Senior Research Scientist at Google working on algorithms to help computers see the world as we do; B.Tech in CS from IIT-Kanpur, PhD from UC Berkeley. LIVES IN: California, USA
30. Satyam Saxena
St. Peter’s College, Agra
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2006
Vice President, Group Finance at DBS, Singapore; BE (Hons) in Computer Science from BITS-Pilani, PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad. LIVES IN: Singapore
31. Geetak Gupta
St. Mary’s Academy, Meerut Cantt
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2006
Research scientist at Transphorm, a semiconductor company; B.Tech in EE from IIT-Kanpur and MS and PhD from University of California Santa Barbara. LIVES IN: Coleta, California, USA
32. Rajhansa Ramasubba Sridhara
Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2006
n Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group; dual degree (B.Tech & M.Tech) in Aerospace Engineering from IIT-Bombay, MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford, MBA from The Wharton School. LIVES IN: San Francisco
33. Pallavi Chandra
Welham Girls’ School, Dehradun
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2006
n Co-founder & Director of Vidyanjali Montessori Preschool and Symphony Events, an event management company; BA (Hons) in Economics at St.Stephen’s College, MSc (Finance & Economics) at University of Warwick and a diploma in Early Years Education from Modern Montessori Institute London. LIVES IN: Karnal
34. Jerene Mathews
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kottayam
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2006
n Paediatric dermatologist at Believers Church Medical College Hospital; MBBS at Government Medical College, Kottayam, MD (Dermatology) and postdoc fellowship from JIPMER.
LIVES IN: Thiruvalla, Kerala
35. Gaurav Mishra
S.C.B. Medical Public School, Cuttack
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2007
n Senior Software Engineer at Google building AI systems; BTech in EE from IIT Delhi. LIVES IN: Mountain View, California
36. Parul Garg
Arya Vidya Mandir, Santacruz, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2007
n Senior Associate at Nexia Advisors, a boutique investment banking firm; BCom (Honours) from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics and is a qualified CA and Chartered Financial Analyst. LIVES IN: Mumbai
37. Jahnvi Dhar
Brahm Prakash DAV School, Hyderabad
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2007
n Senior Resident in third year of DM Gastroenterology at PGIMER, Chandigarh; MBBS, MD from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi. LIVES IN: Chandigarh
38. Lekshmi Vaidyeswaran
Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan Senior Secondary School, Trivandrum
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2007
n Senior Product Manager at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance; B.Tech in Applied Electronics & Instrumentation from College of Engineering Trivandrum, PGDM from IIM Kozhikode. LIVES IN: Mumbai
39. Aparna Muralidhar
Kendriya Vidyalaya, ASC, Bangalore
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2007
Pathologist at Chandramma Dayananda Sagar Institute of Medical Education and Research; MBBS from Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, and post graduation in Pathology from the same college. LIVES IN: Bengaluru, India
40. Antariksh Bothale
Delhi Public School, Jodhpur
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2007
Senior Software Engineer at Google working on Google Assistant; BTech and MTech in ME from IIT-Bombay, MS in Computational Linguistics from University of Washington. LIVES IN: California
41. Janaki Kirit Sheth
Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2008
n Postdoc scholar at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; B.Tech in Engineering Physics from IIT-Bombay, PhD in Physics from University of California, LA. LIVES IN: Philadelphia, USA
42. Shruti Singh
St. Joseph’s Convent School, Varanasi
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2008
Pursuing a PhD in Physics at University of California, San Diego; BTech in Engineering Physics from IIT Bombay and MS in Physics from University of California, San Diego. LIVES IN: San Diego, USA
43. Vignesh Venkatachalam
Kendriya Vidyalaya, CLRI, Chennai
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2008
n Deferred MS in Computational Analysis & Public Policy at University of Chicago to Fall 2021 due to pandemic. Now a research and documentation intern at Rashtram School of Public Leadership, Sonipat; BTech from VNIT Nagpur. LIVES IN: Thane, India
44. Gaurav Sood
The Doon School, Dehradun
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2008
n Running Strategy & Special Projects at Zego, a fintech firm; MBA from University of Oxford, and Bachelor’s in Economics from St Stephen’s College, Delhi. LIVES IN: London
45. Sohini Chaparala
Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Puttaparthi
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2008
Research Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit; graduated with MSc (Integrated) Economics from IIT-Kanpur. LIVES IN: Dhaka, Bangladesh
46. Rishi Rajiv Mehta
Jamnabai Narsee School, Juhu, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2009
Software Engineer working on Google’s search ranking algorithms; B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Kharagpur.
LIVES IN: San Francisco Bay Area, USA
47. Parnil Singh
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Vizag
Topped: Class 10, CBSE, 2009
Joined Kearney, a global management consulting firm, as a consultant this month; Integrated BTech and MTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and MBA from IIM Calcutta. LIVES IN: Delhi
48. Subhojit Ghosh
St. Joseph’s College, Kolkata
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2009
Senior product manager at Amazon helping create personalised shopping experiences for customers; MBA from Harvard Business School, and B. Tech in ME at IIT Kanpur. LIVES IN: Seattle, USA
49. Tannvi Aggarwal
Apeejay School, Faridabad
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2009
Senior Manager at one of the largest retail groups in the Middle East and India; BCom from SRCC (Delhi University) and postgraduate diploma in management from IIM-Bangalore. LIVES IN: Dubai
50. Mrittika Sen
Rajhans Vidyalaya, Mumbai
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2009
Pursuing a fellowship in Ophthalmic and Facial Plastic Surgery and Ocular Oncology at Centre for Sight Superspecialty Eye Hospital, Hyderabad; MBBS from Seth G.S.Medical College, Mumbai, MD Ophthalmology from AIIMS.
LIVES IN: Hyderabad
51. Janvi Vipul Thosani
Smt. Lilavatibai Podar School, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2010
n Analyst with JP Morgan working on managing banks’ liquidity and interest rate risk; BCom from Mumbai University, MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and is a qualified CA. LIVES IN: Mumbai
52. Swati Prusty
DAV Girls Senior Secondary School, Chennai
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2010
Strategy Consultant at L&T Infotech; BTech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS-Pilani, MBA from IIM Bangalore. LIVES IN: Mumbai
53. Shreya Daga
Mahadevi Birla Shishu Vihar, Kolkata
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2010 Manager in the tax depatment of Price Waterhouse; B.Com (Hons.) at St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and is a qualified CA. LIVES IN: Kolkata
54. Sumedha Rai
St. Anthony’s Junior College, Agra
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2010
n Studying M.S in Data Science at New York University; Economics BCom from St. Stephen’s College and M.Sc. Finance from University of Warwick.
LIVES IN: New York
55. Avishek De
St. Xavier’s Institution, Panihati
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2011
n Associate at Goldman Sachs working on platforms that calculate market risk for the firm’s daily trades; BTech in EE from IIT-Roorkee. LIVES IN: Bengaluru
56. Spriha Biswas
Rajendra Vidyalaya, Jamshedpur
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2011
n Chief Product Officer at Scribetech, heading development of a medical speech recognition software; metallurgy engineering at IIT-Bombay. LIVES IN: Mumbai
57. Eti Agarwal
La Martiniere Girls’ College, Lucknow
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2011
Tax Manager at EY; BCom (Honours) from SRCC, Delhi University. Is also a qualified CA and Cogempany Secretary.
LIVES IN: Bahadurgarh, Haryana
58. Dravyansh Sharma
Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2011
n Pursuing PhD in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Was earlier senior software engineer with Google; BTech from IIT-Delhi. LIVES IN: Pittsburgh, USA
59. Madhavi Singh
Carmel School, Dhanbad
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2012
n Lawyer with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas working on competition law cases; studied B.A. LL.B.(Hons.) at National Law School of India University, Bangalore and Bachelor of Civil Law at University of Oxford. LIVES IN: Delhi, India
60. Shalaka Kulkarni
Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2012
n Currently pursing MBA from Yale School of Management; B.Tech in EE from IIT-Bombay. LIVES IN: Connecticut, USA
61. Mohammad Ismat
Zenith Academy Sangaiprou, Imphal
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2012
n Preparing for civil services exam; Physics Bachelor’s from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. LIVES IN: Imphal
62. Anika Agrawal
St. Mary’s School, Pune
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2013
Pursuing M.S. Marine Biology from Texas A&M University; B.S. Environmental Toxicology from University of California, Davis.
LIVES IN: Galveston, Texas, USA
63. Manasi Arora
Chatrabhuj Narsee Memorial School, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2013
Working as an analyst in a global financial services firm; B.Com from HR College of Commerce and Economics and is also a qualified CA. LIVES IN: Mumbai
64. Simran Khanuja
St. Mary’s School, Pune
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2013
Predoc Researcher at Google Research India working on developing technologies for low-resource languages; B.E. in CS and MSc in Economics from BITS-PIlani, Goa. LIVES IN: Bengaluru
65. Sopan Khosla
Delhi Public School, Mandla Road, Jabalpur
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2013
Studying Master’s in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing at Carnegie Mellon University. Earlier worked at Adobe Research Bangalore; B.Tech. in CS from IIT Roorkee.
LIVES IN: Pittsburgh, USA
66. Paras Sharma
Lancer Convent School, Rohini, Delhi
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2013
Is a Master’s student in International Relations at University of Queensland; B.A. (Honours) Economics at SRCC, Delhi University. LIVES IN: Queensland, Australia
67. Bhuvanyaa Vijay
St. Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2013
Self-employed as a freelance research assistant in international environmental law; B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from National Law School of India University, Bangalore. LIVES IN: Bengaluru
68. Shreyas Sudhaman
Sri Kumaran Public School, Bangalore
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2014
Pursuing PhD in Chemical Engineering from Cockrell School of Engg, University of Austin; Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from Ohio State University. LIVES IN: Austin, Texas, USA
69. Siddhartha Shankar Kahali
Little Flower School, Jamshedpur
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2014
Analyst at Goldman Sachs; B.Tech in Mathematics and Computing from IIT-Delhi. LIVES IN: Bengaluru
70. Apoorva Narayanaswamy
St. Paul’s English School, Bangalore
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2014 Attending medical school at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. LIVES IN:
Bengaluru, India
71. Tezan Tapan Sahu
St. Mary’s ICSE School, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2014
Now a 4th-Year BTech student at IIT Bombay. LIVES IN: Mumbai
72. Ayush Banerjee
Loyola School, Jamshedpur
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2014
Investment Analyst at Accel; BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. LIVES IN: Bengaluru, India
73. Sarthak Agrawal
DPS Vasant Kunj, Delhi
Topped: Class 12, CBSE, 2014
TIll recently, he was working as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London. Returned to Delhi to work on an initiative that will help governments use big data and AI for better governance; BA in Economics from SRCC, Delhi, and MPhil from Oxford University. LIVES IN: Delhi
74. Ananya Patwardhan
Chatrabhuj Narsee Memorial School, Mumbai
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2015
Now a 4th-year student of B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) programme at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. LIVES IN: Bengaluru
75. Sougato Chowdhury
St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata
Topped: Class 10, ICSE, 2015
n Final-year student enrolled in the five-year integrated BS-MS program at IISER Pune. LIVES IN: Pune, India
76. Arkya Chatterjee
Vivekananda Mission School, Joka, Kolkata
Topped: Class 12, ISC, 2014
Now a second-year PhD student at MIT; B.Tech in Engineering Physics from IIT-Bombay. LIVES IN: Massachusetts, USA
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