Ranked 19th, Ludhiana man to be first IAS officer from Doraha

LUDHIANA: A small town of Doraha in Ludhiana will get its first IAS officer in Harpreet Singh (28), who bagged 19th All-India rank in UPSC civil services examination, results of which were declared on Friday night.

Son of a primary schoolteacher, Harpreet Singh — who is now undergoing training in the Indian Trade Service, after securing 454th rank last year — topped the exam in the Punjab region.

This was Harpreet Singh’s fifth attempt at the UPSC Civil Services exams. In the first attempt, he did not clear the mains and then failed twice consecutively in the interview stage. However, he secured AIR 454 in the fourth attempt, and was allocated the Indian Trade Service and he is presently undergoing training for ITS.

Talking to TOI, Harpreet said: “ The journey towards this end was quite interesting, as I did not take the help of any private coaching institute to crack the exams. The support of my parents and friends kept me going.”

Harpreet said: “I structured my preparation in such a way that I could fit all my studying into very little time. During my preparations, I relied more on brainstorming than carrying bulky notes around. The biggest setback was not clearing two consecutive interviews, which demotivated me, but I worked even harder to build my confidence.”

“The brilliance of this exam is that there is no single right strategy. I studied my own notes multiple times, and supplemented them with current affairs from newspapers, and sometimes even apps,” Harpreet added.