Of the number of successful candidates, 352 were women, making up 35 per cent of the total. Five years ago, in 2019, the pass percentage of successful women candidates was 24 per cent.

Coming back to the qualified candidates, Srivastava is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and has worked for merchant banker Goldman Sachs.

Animesh Pradhan, a computer science graduate from NIT, Rourkela, and Donuru Ananya Reddy from Mahabubnagar in Telangana, came second and third respectively.

The Civil Services Exam is conducted annually in three stages—preliminary test, main written examination and interview—by the UPSC to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS), besides other central services.

In all, some 180 of those selected will join the IAS, another 37 will join the IFS to man India’s diplomatic corps, and another 200 will be part of the IPS.

Some 613 officers will join the Group A central services such as the Indian Audit & Accounts Service, Indian Revenue Service, and Indian Railway Traffic Service. Besides another 113 will be part of the Group B central services such as Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service and Pondicherry Civil Service.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a tweet, congratulating successful candidates, added “I want to tell those who didn’t achieve the desired success in the Civil Services Examination - setbacks can be tough, but remember, this isn't the end of your journey. There are chances ahead to succeed.”