Uttar Pradesh’s Shakti Dubey topped the 2024 Civil Services Examination while Haryana’s Harshita Goyal stood second, as per the results announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Tuesday. The third rank was secured by Maharashtra’s Dongre Archit Parag. Among the top five candidates, three are women.
A native of Naini in UP, Shakti (28) holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from the University of Allahabad. She chose political science and international relations as her optional subject. It was her fifth attempt.
Harshita (24) was born in Hisar, though her family had moved to Gujarat years earlier. Her father, Govind Goyal, told The Tribune that Harshita was born at Govind Hospital in Hisar. The family later relocated to Vadodara when he was working for a private firm, before she began her schooling. Harshita’s uncle, Shivlal Goyal, said he had moved to Vadodara in the late 1970s and his brother (Govind) joined him later. The two now own factories there.
Harshita is a commerce graduate from the MS University of Baroda. She also opted for political science and international relations and cleared the examination in her third attempt. Dongre (26) has a BTech degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, and chose philosophy as optional subject. A native of Pune, it was his third attempt.
Another woman achiever, Shah Margi Chirag (26), secured the fourth rank with sociology as her optional subject. It was her fifth attempt. She has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in computer engineering from the Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad.
Delhi’s Aakash Garg (24) secured the fifth rank, with sociology as optional subject. Having done BTech in computer science from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi, it was his second attempt.
The civil services preliminary examination was conducted on June 16 last year. A total of 9,92,599 candidates had applied, of whom 5,83,213 appeared in the test.
As many as 14,627 candidates qualified for the main examination. Of them, 2,845 candidates were shortlisted for the personality test conducted between January 7 and April 17 this year.
A total of 1,009 candidates—725 men and 284 women—have been recommended by the UPSC for appointment to various services. As many as 335 candidates are from the general category, 109 from EWS, 318 from OBCs, 160 from SCs and 87 from STs.