Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh’s fiefdom Churhat had hit headlines in 1982 because of a lottery scam run by his son Ajay Singh, but 41 years later its another resident Ambikesh Pratap Singh has given it reason to feel proud. He has been selected for deputy collector’s post this year.

He has had a tumultuous five and half years old civil services journey during which he taught at coaching institutes and even checked copies of IAS aspirants to improve his finances. His journey is an example of fighting every battle on his own and never giving up.

Now, he cracked MPPSC-2020 in his second attempt with Rank 6^th. He will soon appear for UPSC interview and may become an IAS too. He spoke to Indian Masterminds about his journey.

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THE STRUGGLE

After his graduation in 2018, Ambikesh started Civil Services preparation. He moved to Delhi and joined a coaching for general studies in July, 2018. After a year, he shifted to Indore due to financial constraints and started teaching in a local coaching. He also checked answer-sheets of UPSC aspirants to support himself financially.

He cracked MPPSC-2019 in his first attempt but did not get a good rank. In his second attempt in MPPSC-20, he passed the exam with rank 6 and got deputy collector’s post. He has also passed MPPSC-21 & 22 mains, but did not need to appear for the interview as he has already become a DC.

He was also successful in UPSC CSE-2020 prelims & mains, but could not make it to the final list. He again cracked UPSC CSE-2023 pre & mains. His interview is schedule on 7^th of February.

BACKGROUND

He hails from Churhat town in Sidhi district of MP. His father is a farmer and mother, a homemaker. He has a younger sister. He chose to prepared for the MPPSC with her sister in Indore.

He studied till 12^th from his home town before graduating in Civil Engineering from NIT, Bhopal. After that, he also completed his Masters in Geography from APS University. He also cleared Junior research (JRF) exam in Geography.

CIVIL SERVICES PREPARATION

He started his civil services preparation for UPSC CSE, but later combined it to the state civil as backup plan. In the start, he focussed on common General Study’s subjects in UPSC & MPPSC and studied them together.

Daily news and current affairs was in his routine study which helped him lot. His strategic part was daily answer writing. He suggests it for all aspirants that writing practice and test series is really very helpful. He wrote test series as much as he could.

He said, “Revise and write answers, this was strategy. When you do it for all the subject, then your base will be strengthened.”

He didn’t prepare separately for MPPSC. But at the time of exam, he focussed on MP sections, he said.

INTERVIEW

His interview was focussed around his DAF. He was asked about his background, current affairs besides some analytical questions.

A board member asked that if you were a deputy collector of this place, then what will you do. He replied that the sectors he wanted to work about are health, women and MSMEs. Then, an interview board member asked many questions related to health issues like Malaria.

SUGGESTIONS

Giving suggestions to aspirants, he said, “First, complete your basics and study NCERT & all standard books. Develop core understanding about every topic you read. This exam is all about your analytical strength and understanding them well, not mugging up things. Be consistent and motivate yourself.”

FUTURE AIM

Talking about his future goals he said, “I want to work for practical education which I will implement wherever I am posted. I will also try to organize inter-school competitions at block level in many fields. It motivates each and every child and gives them exposure.Apart from it, I also want to work in primary health sectors and local MSMEs, where I see a lot of potential”.