The UPSC CSE 2021 results, announced on 30 May this year, were dominated by three women toppers. Women have been consistently doing well in the civil services exam and are coming in more numbers, year after year. Just like the three women who emerged as the UPSC toppers this year, T. Swathi Sree from Tamil Nadu managed to top her state by securing an All India Rank 42.
Prior to this, Swathi appeared for the exam twice and was successful in the second attempt. However, she did not get her preferred service and so chose to appear for the exam again. The decision turned out well for her as she managed to get a top rank of 42 to achieve her goal, because of which she had started the preparation in the first place.
AGRICULTURE STUDENT
Swathi Sree comes from Udhagamandalam city in Tamil Nadu which is also known as Ooty. She completed her initial studies at Ooty and Coonoor. After this, she went on to pursue BSc in Agriculture at RVS Agriculture College in Thanjavur.
Her father K Thiyagarajan is a businessman, whereas her mother, G Lakshmi, is a B.Com graduate and a retired postal assistant who worked in Ooty and Coonoor. Her grandparents were involved in agricultural activities, from whom she developed an interest in pursuing research in the agricultural sector.
It was during graduation that Swathi thought of preparing for the UPSC exam as she had a feeling that civil services could help her create a much larger impact by helping her to get involved in policy making.
UPSC JOURNEY
Soon after passing out of college in 2018, she moved to Chennai to start preparing for the UPSC exam. She joined Manidhanaeyam IAS Academy in the beginning and later got enrolled in Aram IAS academy.
While speaking with the media, she said, “I started off with covering basic books and took up tests regularly. I used to read newspapers to update myself on current affairs and simultaneously solved questions regularly and identified mistakes. I worked on them to rectify them.”
Swathi appeared for the first time in 2019 but failed to clear the mains stage. She appeared again in 2020 and this time she managed to secure AIR 126 to become an IRS officer. Swathi always wanted to get into the administrative service and be involved in policy making, so she appeared for the exam again in 2021.
She cleared all the stages of the examination and was very confident this time. She even stopped preparing for the next year’s examination as it was affecting her health. The result got announced on 30 May and Swathi’s prediction of scoring well this time also turned out to be true. She secured an All India Rank 42 and emerged as the topper from Tamil Nadu. CM MK Stalin also took to Twitter to congratulate Swathi on her success.
