'Happy to serve my country': Meet Ishita Kishore, sports enthusiast, who topped UPSC 2022 exams after failing twice

UPSC topper Ishita Kishore is a commerce graduate and had worked with advisory firm Ernst & Young. An active sportsperson Ishita cleared the UPSC exam in her third attempt.

New Delhi: From failing to clear the prelims in her first two attempts to securing All India Rank 1 (UPSC AIR 1) in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2022 in the third one, the journey of Ishita Kishore is of grit and determination. Ishita cleared the exhaustive UPSC examination with­­­­­­­­­­­­ political science and international relations as her optional subjects.

Garima Lohia, Uma Harathi N and Smriti Mishra secured the second, third and fourth ranks respectivelyin the examination, the results of which were declared on Tuesday. Ishita, who has grabbed the headlines following her achievement, graduated in Economics in 2017 from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, affiliated with Delhi University. After completing her studies, she was employed with the multi-national services partnership firm Ernst & Young in risk advisory.

"I am very happy that I have the opportunity to serve my country and I hope I can do it well," a buoyed Ishita told PTI. An active sportsperson all her life, Ishita has been a performer par excellence since her school days but cracking Civil Services did not come easy. She managed to clear the most exhaustive examination in the country with flying colours on her third attempt. In the first two attempts, she was not able to go beyond the prelims phase.

"I did a lot of hard work and am happy that I got the desired results. All three stages - prelims, mains and interview require different types of preparation. But one must continue doing the hard work and be honest with oneself. Apart from academic skills, it requires you to be emotionally strong and patient," added Ishita.

Her mother Jyoti Kishore said that Ishita did her schooling at Air Force School, Bal Bharti in New Delhi and she represented India in the Subroto Cup, an international inter-school football tournament.

"I cannot express my happiness in words. Her preparation was good as she was always focused from the start. She is a very good sportsperson and has represented India in the Subroto Cup. She studied at the Air Force School, Bal Bharti, Lodhi Road in New Delhi. Ishita's father was a Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force. Ishita lost her father when she was young," Jyoti said.

The civil services examination annually takes place in three stages — preliminary, mains and interview. It is conducted by the UPSC to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), and other cadres. Like Ishita, Garima, who ranked second, also is a Commerce graduate from Delhi University affiliated Kirorimal College, while Uma Harathi N is a B.Tech. graduate in Civil Engineering from the prestigious IIT, Hyderabad. Smriti Mishra is a BSc. graduate from Delhi University affiliated Miranda House College.

The civil services preliminary examination 2022 was conducted on June 5 last year. A total of 11,35,697 candidates applied for this examination, out of which 5,73,735 candidates actually appeared in it. A total of 13,090 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in September, 2022. A total of 2,529 candidates qualified for the personality test of the coveted examination.