She is just 22 years old and it was her first attempt at the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2023, considered to be the toughest competitive examination in the country.
Yet, Donuru Ananya Reddy from a remote village of Ponnekal in Addakul mandal in Telangana’s Mahabubnagar district bagged the third rank in the country in the CSE-2023 conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
What is more remarkable for Ananya is that except for Anthropology, which was an alien subject for her, she did not attend any coaching classes for any other subjects in the Civil Services Examination. “I prepared for the UPSC examination sitting at home. Only for Anthropology, I took expert coaching in Hyderabad for a few months,” a jubilant Ananya told reporters.
Hailing from a middle-class family – her father Donuru Suresh Reddy is a self-employed small-time businessman and her mother Manjula, a homemaker, Ananya did her schooling in Mahabubnagar town, before moving to Hyderabad for higher studies.
With the sole intention of cracking Civil Services, Ananya moved to New Delhi to pursue her graduation – BA (Hons) in Geography from Miranda House College of Delhi University. Within a year of graduation, she appeared for the Civil Services and made it to the top in her first attempt.
“I performed well in the interview and I was hoping to make it to the final list. But never did I expect that I would stand third in the list,” Ananya said. “I am the first person in my family circles to get into Civil Services and become an IAS officer. Right from my schooling days, my ambition was to become a civil servant and serve the society,” she said.
Ananya said she had prepared for the exam as per her own plan and did not follow any specific pattern. “I studied for 12-14 hours a day,” she said.
A cricket enthusiast, Ananya is also very much interested in teaching and mentoring students.
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy, who also hails from Mahabubnagar district, congratulated Ananya Reddy for making the state and the district proud by bagging All India third rank in the Civil Services. He also expressed happiness that more than 50 students from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh made it to the Civil Services this year.
Also Read: Studying is important, counting hours is not: UPSC CSE 2023 AIR 10 Aishwaryam Prajapati
