BHUBANESWAR: Sweta Mohanty has multiple identities. Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise, wife of an IAS officer, mother of a toddler and now the second ranker in the Civil Services Examination (CSE).
Call her a multi-tasker as she easily juggles family and motherhood; work and preparation for CSE. Hers is a story of determination.
In 2007, when Sweta first cleared the examination, she landed the 312th rank. She wanted to go further up and continued trying. The third attempt got her the second spot in the UPSC examination and the coveted IAS. “IAS is an extremely demanding examination, but I always took it up as a challenge,” she says. For her, IAS preparation was a continuous learning process which she enjoyed. “I wish I could make 10 attempts so I could study for 10 more years. You actually grow a lot in the process.”
Sweta never had a specific schedule for her preparation. Being a voracious reader, she sat down for studying whenever she got time but it was her family which helped her stay focussed. “They went out of their way to make me comfortable. Success would not have been possible without them,” she says.
A B.Tech degree holder from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Sweta, the mother, made it a point to devote the time to her daughter. “My way of unwinding at the end of a hectic day is to play with my daughter Nandini.”
Sweta feels no other job is as dignified as the IAS. It offers an opportunity for leadership and to work at the grassroots level. One gets a chance to make an impact on people’s lives across a variety of domains such as health, education, water, sanitation, roads and electricity, she adds.
Her inspiration has been her father P K Mohanty, an Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer, currently on deputation to the Centre. “I have grown up seeing my father work endlessly for development of the state. I always wanted to follow him.” Born in Cuttack and brought up in Hyderabad, Sweta is currently posted at Siliguri. The Mohanty family originally hails from Puri.
