First graduate from family, Ballari doctor cracks UPSC

BENGALURU: Dr Syed Zahed Ali, 27, from Ballari who’s the first person to graduate in his family, has cracked the UPSC exam with the 410th rank in his third attempt.

Dr Syed is currently working as a probationary tahasildar in Haveri and he cleared KAS in 2014.

However, Dr Syed wants to take the exam once again and try to get a rank within

100. “The work of a deputy commissioner has always excited me,” said Syed.

“My son always harboured the ambition of being an IAS officer. He gave up his MD seat in dermatology in Ballari Medical College to take up civil services,” said Syed’s father, Abdul Hussain, a government employee.

Dr Syed is one of the 14 candidates from Hubbali-based Samutkarsh IAS institute to have cracked UPSC. The three-year-old not-for-profit institute conducted free training for the interview guidance programme by organizing model interviews with an expert panel. In 2017, 13 of the 23 candidates trained by the institute cleared the exam.

Vinod Patil, 26, who bagged the 294th rank, was also trained by the institute. Vinod, an engineering graduate, is the first person to crack UPSC from Gangavathi.

Jitendra Nayak, secretary of Samurtkarsh, said the institute is also working on creating awareness about UPSC exams in Karnataka schools. “In North India, students take up courses like BA with an ambition to crack IAS and enter civil services. In South India, students are largely pursue medical and engineering courses and hence the awareness on UPSC is less. That is what we are working on,” said Nayak.