Shakti Dubey has emerged as the topper in the Union Public Service Commission Civil Service Examinations 2024 (UPSC CSE 2024), whose results were declared today, April 22.
Reacting to her success, her father, who serves as a policeman, credited her mother for her achievement.
“I am very happy. The only role I played in her studies was to make available anything and everything she needed… My wife played a major role in her succes,” he told The Times of India.
However, her mother, a housewife, denied taking responsibility for her success.
In a video byte provided to ANI, she said, “She has been able to achieve this rank because of the blessings of God. I had no role to play. She studied day and night.”
A native of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, she attempted the UPSC CSE for the first time last year — which she didn’t just clear, but also managed to secure an impressive AIR (All India Rank) 1.
Shakti attended Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi after graduating from school, where she engaged herself in campus life and intellectual discourse.
On campus, she was exposed to a variety of perspectives, which helped her develop the analytical mindset required of civil servants, India Today reports. It was here that her interest in public administration and governance grew stronger.
She started preparing for the CSE in 2018, and chose political science and international relations as her subjects — a departure from biochemistry, which she pursued during her time at BHU, The Times of India reports.
Along with Harshita Goyal (AIR 2), and Dongre Archit Parag (AIR 3), Shakti has achieved the daunting feat of topping what is deemed to be one of the most difficult and demanding exams in the world.
