Akshara Saini tops Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali in ICSE Class X exams, but Pranshu Kumar shows how to trump adversity with 99.2%

Chandigarh: Students from across Chandigarh, Panchkula, and Mohali delivered stellar performances in ICSE Class X results declared on Wednesday. The top spot was bagged by Akshara Saini of Little Flower Convent School, Panchkula, who scored 99.4%. Five others followed closely with 99.2%, tying for the 2nd rank.
While Akshara came up with a steller performance, Pranshu Kumar from Col VR Mohan DAV Public School, Derabassi, became the example of how hard work trumps everything. Pranshu (16), who took one of the second spots in the tricity, comes from a modest background. His father, Deepak Kumar, works a labour job at a private company in Saidpura, while his mother is a lady guard. "My parents fulfilled all my needs. The school supported me with free textbooks, sample papers, and even a scholarship," he said.
Pranshu hopes to pursue non-medical and crack the JEE in 2027.
Meanwhile, Akshara (15) credited her success to consistency and long-term planning. "My father used to teach me. Science is my favourite subject," she said. She aims to pursue engineering at IIT-Bombay. Her father, Pradeep Saini, is a superintendent engineer with the Haryana electricity board, while her mother, Jaswinder, is a homemaker. The family lives in Panchkula and hails from a village in Ambala. Akshara also enjoys drawing, poetry, and playing table tennis.
Others who scored 99.2% were Ramya Bansal and Aasma Sri Garg from Strawberry Fields High School, Chandigarh; Arshnoor Singh from Yadavindra Public School, Mohali; and Atuleya Malhotra from St Stephen's School, Sector 45, Chandigarh.