INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF AN IAS

nsar Ahmad Shaikh has become the youngest candidate to crack the UPSC Civil Services
exam at the age of 21 with an all India rank of 361 in his very first attempt in 2015. Ansar
sheikh, the son of an auto-rickshaw driver and brother of a mechanic, hails from a
marginalised family from the Jalna village of Maharashtra.

Despite his vulnerable economic conditions, Ansar excelled in studies from the very start and
landed in the prestigious college course of B. A in Political Science, Pune. Driven by a strong
will, he used to work 12 hours a day straight for three consecutive years while preparing for
his UPSC exam.

He has defied all odds, including religious discrimination, to crack the most prestigious
competitive UPSC examination of India. Coming from a poor conservative Muslim family, his
achievement is really worth applauding. He has become a source of inspiration for many poor
aspirants trying hard to make a mark in this world of cut-throat competition.

According to this budding civil servant, coming from a backward underdeveloped region and
belonging to a minority community has acted more as an insight for him to study the horizontal
differences that exist in the society. Moreover, his first-hand tryst with social ostracisation has
also provided him with vivid solutions to such deep-rooted problems as an administrator.