“Credit for my success goes to my mother. She is my role model and I learned the most from her. My brother guided me through the entire UPSC process. While, my father is my rock,” these are Aniruddh Yadav’s words.
When Indian Masterminds caught up with him while he was still celebrating his success, one thing he clearly conveyed is how important family support is in this long journey of civil services examination.
Aniruddh got All India Rank -8 in his fourth attempt in UPSC CSE-2022. He had cracked the prestigious exam twice earlier managing IRPS and IIS with his rankings. But his heart was set on IAS.
When the results were declared on May 23, his family was glued to the Commission’s website. After seeing his rank, they were overjoyed.
Mr. Yadav said, “This exam takes much hard-work. But am relieved I don’t have to sit through it again. I feel lucky and content with the upgrade.”
NOT HIS FIRST
In his first attempt, Mr. Yadav, who originally hails from UP’s Aligarh, had got through to the Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS). He got Indian Information Service in his second attempt and is currently an IIS officer.
In his third, he couldn’t crack the Prelims but after succeeding UPSC CSE-2022 he has reserved IAS.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Aniruddh‘s family, now in Delhi, is full achievers. His father is an IPS, mother an officer in Quality Council of India, while his elder brother, Aditya Vikram, is a 2017 batch IAS officer who got AIR-72. Mr. Yadav had a legacy to take forward.
Manoj Yadav, DG, National Human Rights Commission, is a proud father. Anirudh Yadav, the younger son of the former Haryana DGP, has added another star to the family legacy. Manoj Yadav’s elder son Aditya is posted as DC, Sivasagar in Assam.
For Aniruddh, his brother has been his biggest motivation in his UPSC journey. Aniruddh, who finished his schooling from Sanskriti School in Delhi and completed his engineering in biochemical and biotechnology from IIT Delhi in 2018, said, “My brother is my source of motivation and he offered huge guidance. After my college, it was he, who motivated me to join civil services.”
UPSC
He started his UPSC preparation in the final year of graduation. He did not attend any classroom coaching, but gave many test series and mock tests. He regularly studied 7 to 9 hours in his last three attempts.
His IIS training impacted his studies and yet he managed AIR 8.
He believes that reading the syllabus is most important part of preparation. “One should learn the syllabus and study accordingly, he added. He read newspapers regularly and contextualized it.”
On choosing Anthropology as his optional, he said, “There are a lot of Biotechnology syllabus in this subject, which is called physical Anthropology. It covers DNA, RNA etc. And biotechnology as optional is not available in UPSC. So it was the closest to my stream.”
MOON PHASE
Aniruddh’s interview was cordial and most of the questions were related to his profile. There were current affairs-based, besides on Delhi, his current service and global development.
Then the panelists asked him: “How do moon’s phases impact the rural life?”
Aniruddh’s reply was “India has lunisolar calendar — 12 months move according to the moon. Festivals, holidays, daily worship are decided according to the moon. Thus it impacts everyone.”
BE CONSISTENT
Offering suggestions to aspirants, Aniruddh said that consistency is the name of this game. “This exam is a long journey, but one has to be patient.If you work hard and keep going, you are bound to make it.”
The future IAS whose dream was fulfilled after several attempts says he would as an officer focus on rural development, financial independency and technology driven solutions.
