Outshining Women of India

For the past few years, 'women outshine men' has been the leading headline in newspapers after the results of several major examinations are declared. Women top rank holders in the Civil Services Examination (CSE)conducted by the Union Public service Examination (UPSC) this year, again made waves across India.

According to the Indian Embassy in Egypt, the UPSC CSE is the main examination for entering public services in India and is considered one of the toughest in the world. For the past few years, women have been outshining men in several major examinations. Also, the number of women appearing for various examinations has been seeing a steady rise since the turn of the century.

This year women bagged the top three positions in the recent CSE 2021 result. One is from Delhi, the second from West Bengal and the third from Punjab, which symbolise the persity of the aspirants. Two of them studied in St Stephen’s College, the third is an engineer.

Delhi’s Ms. Shruti Sharma topped the merit list, followed by Kolkata’s Ms. Ankita Agarwal and Ms. Gamini Singla from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab.

In the 2014 exam, Ms. Ira Singhal, Ms. Renu Raj and Ms. Nidhi Gupta were top three, with Ms. Vandana Rao coming fourth. Although there have been many instances of women securing high positions in UPSC exams in the past years, this is for the first time since 2014 that the top three rankers are women.

Women featuring in the top 10 ranks is a regular occurrence day and more and more women in India are making their mark new areas and contributing to the ‘Making of New India’.

Congratulating the successful candidates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter that they “are embarking on their administrative careers at an important time of India’s development journey, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”.