In 2014, Sarthak Agarwal had become a viral meme star for securing 99.6% in his 12th board exam. In 2020, he has become a UPSC star by securing AIR 17 in the premier examination of the country. Before appearing for the exam, he was working in World Bank as a Researcher in the Poverty & Equity Global Unit. In an exclusive interview to INDIAN MASTERMINDS, Sarthak revealed what made him leave the World Bank and get into Indian civil services.
JOURNEY TO CIVIL SERVICE
Sarthak cracked UPSC CSE exam in his very first attempt with merely 7 months of preparation amidst lockdown from July 2020 to January 2021. Born and brought up in Delhi, he did his schooling in Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, and had scored 96.6% marks in class XII to become the CBSE topper that year. He did his graduation in BA Economics Honours from Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi, and completed his Masters and M Phil in Economics from Oxford University.
Sarthak pursued research work in London and later joined the World Bank where he worked as a Researcher in the Poverty and Equity Global Unit. He was originally located at Washington D.C., but due to the pandemic, he started working from home. During that time, he thought of transitioning from research to public service and started his preparation for the UPSC Civil Services Exam. He said, “I think research can be put on the ground because there’s a huge gap between what we write in research and what happens in public service. I can now apply my knowledge and make a difference which will be relevant to the people”.
EXCITED ABOUT NEW ROLE
Sarthak looks forward to being an effective and empathetic leader and someone who listens to everybody carefully. He said, “The main aim would be to provide governance by bringing responses to whatever the people in my area care about the most. This would be my utmost priority rather than imposing my own priority on the people, which is unfortunately what many bureaucrats are trying to do. My first thing would be to continue with the programs that have been launched by my predecessors to the best of my ability and not just try to change everything for the heck of it”.
He is very excited to start on his new role and cannot wait to get into the training academy and later to the field, and whatever lies ahead. “I’m aware that the exam might have been the easiest phase compared to the challenges that are forthcoming in the future. I feel a lot more responsible and very inspired when people say they are expecting good things from me,” he said.
FOLLOWED OWN STRATEGY
He didn’t follow the strategies of past toppers, rather he tried to make his own way. Neither did he join any coaching institute or study group. “I was doing everything on my own, whatever seemed to be best at that moment, and that was the crux of my studies as well. I followed a variety of Indian and international newspapers as I don’t think it is useful to rely on any one magazine or newspaper in particular. The idea was to get as many news inputs from as many sources as I can,” Sarthak said.
He also revealed that he didn’t follow any specific time or schedule but whenever he felt motivated, he would study the whole day, while at other times, he would skip studying for the whole day without much regret. “I didn’t concentrate on making the number of hours every day but just being kind of sure that I am moving in the right direction,” he added.
PANDEMIC SHAPED THE FUTURE
The pandemic was a major struggle as coming to terms with everything that was happening around the world was not easy for him. But that situation also inspired him to work in the government sector as he noticed the importance of effective functioning of the government in such crisis situations. He said, “I thought about the exam a lot before making a jump. Whether I really want to get into civil service or not. Once I decided that, things became easier. I had a clear idea of why and what I am doing.”
BACKUP OPTION NECESSARY
One thing which he stressed on a lot was the importance of having a backup option. He said, “I wasn’t concentrating on just one thing because what if it doesn’t work out and I would basically be nowhere. That extra pressure is often avoidable by keeping something outside UPSC, like any extra-curricular which one can look up to.”
BE EXPERIMENTATIVE
When it comes to UPSC exam, Sarthak is all for being bold and experimentative. His advice to aspirants is: “Do not be too keen to follow something just because it has worked in the past for other people. It is equally fine if you come up with your own strategy. If you don’t want to prepare for a span of 2 years and think you can do it in a shorter amount of time, then please go ahead. If you don’t want to make notes, that’s also okay. The idea is to stay motivated. Ask yourself what the exam is asking and then see what is the best approach that you can follow.”
