Haritha V Kumar was the first woman topper of the Indian Civil Services Examination in 2012 from Kerala and she says “Success is not the product of an overnight effort” and Kerala celebrated a first rank victory after 22 years.
In 1991, a Kerala bureaucrat Raju Narayan Swamy had topped the Civil Services rank list. This is one examination where mugging will do no good. Instead, one has to work really hard. Perseverance and dedication is the key to her success.
Family Background
Haritha V Kumar, was born and brought up in Thiruvananthapuram. Harith’s father Vijay Kumar runs a construction business while mother Chitra is a homemaker. Her twin brothers, Safdheerth and Sasdharsh, are proud of her achievement; and Haritha inspired Sasdharsh for preparing the UPSC Civil Services Examination. Her father has helped her a lot in fostering the desire for IAS.
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Educational Background
Haritha completed her schooling from St. Theresa’s Convent School and Plus Two from Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Neyyattinkara. She secured an Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication from the Government Engineering College, Barton Hill in the year 2007. Early in her childhood, she had decided to become an IAS officer.
Marks Obtained
| Total Marks | Marks Obtained | |
| Total (Written) | 2000 | 1013 |
| Interview | 300 | 180 |
| Total | 2300 | 1193 (51.87%) |
Optional Subjects
Haritha opted for Economics and Malayalam as her optional subjects. She believed economics is the underlying problems to all issues India is facing. So she wanted to have a deep knowledge of the subject. She says “one’s life revolves around economics. For any problem, you can find that the root cause is related to economics”.
On other hand, Malayalam is her mother tongue and from childhood she had a special liking for Malayalam.
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Attempts
Haritha did not pass in her first attempt. In her first attempt in 2009, she fell short of 18 marks from clearing the mains. In the second attempt, she got 179th rank and got selected for Indian Police Service(IPS), but she opted for IRS. In her third attempt, she got a rank of 294. This time she got what she aimed for as she was very keen to become an Indian Administrative Service (IAS). This was her fourth and final attempt.
Success Mantra for UPSC aspirants by Haritha V Kumar
- Your success is directly proportional to the intensity of your ambition. So stay focused on your goal. This will help you overcome the obstacles and failures you may face on the way.
- One should not get disheartened and must work with dedication and determination.
- Instead of studying for a certain number of hours, divide the syllabus into parts and decide how much you would cover each day.
- One vital thing that you should remember is, in the interview, there is an option to use your mother tongue, but I won’t advocate that. It is always better to speak in English in the interview.”
- A lot of writing practice before attempting the mains.
- One should be a regular reader of newspaper, which helped a lot in improving general knowledge and passion for reading.
- Communication in English is very important and has to be developed from an early stage itself.
- Finally, one should not allow anything to be a road block that prevents you from reaching your goal. One has to overcome such hurdles and for that a family’s support is crucial.
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IAS
Sir ! Would u please tell me whether can I choose Urdu Language as a medium while writing main exam?
Better go with English as lot IAS material available. Very hard to get material in mother tong be it Urdu, Kannada or Malayalam. etc
Assalam va alay kum
Urdu is a nice language to go with but english would help to increase your efficiences even in future
Most inspiring
Kudos to such meritorious students who never looks back.She is worthy of her new distinction as IAS after so many attempts.IAS needs to be more modern,more strong,more approachable,more friendly.They tend to be servants of mass not masters.But now a days few IAS thinks,behaves,works as masters of people.
very informative.
We can better think in our mother toungh.
It was very inspiring.
Thanks
Sir ,iam choosing manipuri literature as optional and but choose English medium in main exam .should I write my optional paper in English medium or manipuri script and what medium in mains papers
Sir ! Would u please tell me whether can I choose hindi Language as a medium while writing main exam?
Congratulations for scaling new heights and setting new standards.
Mam
as a malayali i am really happy in your success
wish you all the very best mam
ur story is really inspiring 4 me
mam I completed my +2 course and have a strong determination 2 become an IAS officer
and i know there is no short cut 4 this
4 achiving my dream i am ready 2 take any chalange.mam will u plz help me 2 achive my goal through ur valuable experiance
Start from the bottom and stick to the basics in the beginning…cover all ncert books upto 10 or 10+2 if possible…read news papers and magazines like competition success on a regular basis..then have good eye on the society and day to day happenings..note it down and make yur own ideas and overlook over the issues. Then have a broad look into the UPSC syllabus…collect the study materials either from a coaching institute or from any other sources…divide yur time and slowly slowly grab the facts…read..revise and restart..motivate yourself..plan accordingly…its always recommended to attend a coaching class…there yu will cleared of each and every doubts regarding the examination…also yu will get a platform to go ahead..best of luck..
I am applying upsc
First time exam attend.
Plz tell what is syllabus for upsc. How to get our sucsses ,what type obstacle we are face .prepertion for it
MAM i want to apply upsc for become IAS officer my aim .in life . so plz kindly request u plz give me some tips ..
post the interview of odia ips pinak misra from kalahandi 2011 batch.
post the detail of 2011 batch odia ips officer pinak misra from kalahandi.
why they not accept the position of first succeed trial? for better rank and position they waste one seat of one new aspirant it’s waste of resources.
Sir can i apply at 20..with graduation degree.
Thanks fr ur valuable inspiring story ma’am all d best fr ur IAS life…
Thank you.
sir i completed B.Sc. nursing in 2012. now i want to prepare for ias exam so please guide me to choose an optional subject.
thanks…
really most inspiring
Sir,will I’ll be able to speak in Malayalam with the help of a translator
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