Kanishak Kataria

Optional: Mathematics

A B.Tech student from IIT Bombay, Kanishak Kataria, has topped the civil services final exam with mathematics as optional paper in his first attempt only. He is from Rajasthan and is currently working as a data scientist.

Even before he topped the UPSC examination, he topped the IIT-JEE in the SC category in 2010 and graduated from IIT-Bombay in 2014, eventually going on to work for Samsung in South Korea. He closely observed the difference between a developed and a developing nation. This triggered a desire in him to be a part of the Indian public administration and bring about a change.

But more than money, his motivation was “to improve the quality of public governance and administration in India”. Moreover, he had observed public service from close quarters — his father Sanwar Mal Verma and uncle Kailash Chand Verma are both IAS officers. While the former is the director of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department in the Rajasthan government, the latter is Jaipur’s Divisional Commissioner.

In 2017, he quit his job to focus entirely on appearing for the Union Public Service (UPSC) examination.

Advising other UPSC aspirants, he said, “People shouldn’t take unnecessary burden — like UPSC is the only thing in life. If they take unnecessary burden, their performance also gets affected. I didn’t take too much pressure; that I have to clear an examination. I took it step by step at each stage and was able to clear it. If people have clear minds, they will be able to concentrate better and perform more efficiently.”