Hariram Shankar’s story of UPSC civil services success is a lesson on perseverance. His bagged the IPS in his fifth attempt in CSE 2016. Shankar secured a commendable rank of 145. This article brings to you UPSC topper Hariram Shankar’s story and also his tips to aspirants.
IAS Topper Story
- Hariram Shankar is a native of Thrissur, Kerala.
- His father is Venkitachalam V H, a Section Officer at IMG Kochi.
- His mother is an Ayurveda Doctor at Vaidyaratnam Ayurveda College, Thrissur.
- He has a younger brother who studied at IIT Bombay.
- Shankar is a mechanical engineering graduate from NIT Calicut.
- He did his primary schooling from St. Paul’s School in Thrissur and secondary school from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir in Poochatty, Thrissur district.
- After giving one half-hearted attempt at the civil services, Shankar joined SBI as a Probationary Officer.
- Realising his dreams lay elsewhere he quit that job and pursued the civil services exam.
- In his fourth attempt, he got selected for the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS).
- Before getting selected for the IPS the following year, he had undergone training at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts at Shimla for a year and 6 months on-the-job training at Kolkata.
Know more about the Indian Police Service from the links in the table below:
What inspired Shankar?
Shankar was inspired by his senior in college, Gokul G.R. who had bagged the IAS in his maiden attempt with an astounding all India rank of 19. It was then that Shankar thought of the civil services dream as achievable with enough hard work.
In 2016, the year Shankar secured the IPS, the topper (AIR 1) was Nandini KR, a serving IRS officer. Read Nandini’s UPSC success story here.
Preparation Strategy
- Practiced plenty of mock tests for both IAS prelims and mains exams.
- Stayed away from social media.
- Took good care of health and got a good night’s sleep.
- Made notes to study. You can get NCERT notes for UPSC exam at the linked article.
- Went through the Economic Survey and India Year Book selectively.
- Read The Hindu, Yojana and Kurukshetra. You can get the analysis of all three from this website. Check the table below for more.
| Comprehensive News Analysis Text with PDF | The Hindu News Analysis Video Lecture |
| Gist of Yojana Magazine | Gist of Kurukshetra Magazine |
Hariram Shankar Facts
Rank: 145
CSE: 2016
Service allocated: IPS
Attempt: Fifth
Optional: Geography
More on the Geography Optional at the linked article.
Related Links:
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