BHUBANESWAR: Sonepur's Karthik Panigrahi has become the Odisha topper in the Civil Services Examination, the results of which were announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Monday.
Of 685 candidates who cleared the examination for the year 2021, Karthik was placed in 63rd rank. He is followed by Gourav Agarwal of Sundargarh who secured 86th rank. This was Karthik's third attempt at the civil services.
"The first two attempts, I was a little unorganised with my preparations but this time, I had prepared well and was sure of securing some rank. But I did not expect 63rd rank," said Karthik, who was brought up in different parts of the country due to his father’s transferable job.
Gourav cracked the examination in his second attempt. An alumni of National Law University, he had started preparing for the civil services in 2019. "My objective will be to make the voice of people at the grassroots reach the government," he said and attributed his success to hardwork.
Although it is not clear how many aspirants from Odisha made it to the final list, a few who made the ranks are Pooja Sahu at (199), Durga Prasad Adhikary (205), Biswa Bisruta Tripathy (232), Samir Kumar Jena (273), Soumya Ranjan Pradhan (306) and Manas Ranjan Sahu (513).
For Durga from Berhampur, this was his fourth attempt. An engineering graduate from erstwhile College of Engineering and Technology, he worked with Bosch and Maruti Suzuki before giving up his job in 2017 to start IAS preparations.
"I was interested in civil services since my college days but while working in both the companies, I could not get enough time to prepare. This is why I decided to quit and give full time for preparations," he said.
Odisha's Karthik Panigrahi gets 63rd rank
Similarly, this was the fourth attempt for Biswa Bisruta of Bhubaneswar who is currently a trainee officer in Odisha Administrative Service (OAS). An engineering graduate from NIT-Rourkela, he worked in PepsiCo-India for a few years before giving it up to prepare for civil services in New Delhi.
He also completed his MA in History from JNU , New Delhi in 2017 during the preparations and appeared
for the OA S in 2018. "The OAS results were declared in December last year and I was selected. But I plan to appear for the civil services examination again next year for rank improvement," he said.
Eight from Odisha find place
Others who made the ranks are Gaurav Agarwal at (86), Pooja Sahu (199), Durga Prasad Adhikary (205), Biswa Bisruta Tripathy (232), Samir Kumar Jena (273), Soumya Ranjan Pradhan (306) and Manas Ranjan Sahu (513).