Woman tops civil services exam for third year in row

The top position in General, Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste have also been secured by women candidates

For the third consecutive year, a woman has topped the prestigious Civil Services Examination 2012.

Haritha V Kumar, a probationer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) 2011 batch, has made it to the top slot of the coveted exam, according to the results declared today by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The top position in General, Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) have also been secured by women candidates.

Kumar, who is undergoing training at National Academy of Customs Excise and Narcotics (NACEN), holds a Bachelor of Technology (Electronics and Communication) degree from Kerala University. This was her fourth attempt.

V Sriram and Stuti Charan have bagged second and third positions respectively in the examination.

Sriram, who has earned Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from Kerala University, has achieved the distinction in his second attempt.

Charan has done Bachelor of Science from Jodhpur University and Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel and Marketing Management from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), Delhi. It was her third attempt.

Shena Aggarwal, an MBBS from the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), had bagged the top slot in the civil services examination 2011. While Chennai-based law graduate S Divyadharshini topped the list in the 2010 exams.

As many as 998 candidates -- 753 male and 245 female -- have been selected for appointments to various central services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others, according to a release by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Of these 998 successful candidates, 457 are in General (including 23 physically challenged) category, 295 Other Backward Classes (including nine Physically challenged), 169 Scheduled Castes (including two physically challenged) and 77 Scheduled Tribes.

There were 1,091 advertised vacancies -- 550 General, 295 Other Backward Classes, 169 Scheduled Castes and 77 Scheduled Tribes-- for Civil Service Examination 2012.