IAS Success Story: Farmer’s son from Rajasthan, who fought all odds, cracked UPSC CSE in Hindi medium

Ravi Kumar Sihag’s parents expressed joy upon knowing that their son had cracked one of the toughest exams in the country - the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil services exam.

Ravi, a native of the Rajasthani district of Sri Ganganagar, is the son of a farmer. He had worked with his father in the fields until his graduation.

Sihag cleared the exam in the Hindi medium. He gave four attempts for the UPSC exam, out of which he cracked three. In 2018, first attempt, Sihag got 337th rank and Indian Defense Accounts Service (IDAS) cadre. In 2019, second attempt, he was successful in getting 317th rank and Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) cadre. In the third attempt in the year 2020, Ravi could not even pass the UPSC examination. After that in 2021, the farmer’s son secured 18th rank and has become an IAS officer.

Interestingly, the initial 17 ranked aspirants were from the English medium and Ravi, who secured the 18th rank, was a Hindi medium candidate. So, this made him the topper of the Hindi medium in the UPSC CSE 2021.

Born on November 2, 1995, Ravi’s father Ramkumar Sihag is a farmer and his mother, Vimala Devi, is a homemaker. He is the only brother among three sisters.

However, Ravi is not the only farmer’s son who cracked the UPSC exam. Yaksh Chaudhary from Uttar Pradesh also cleared the UPSC CSE 2022 securing All India Rank 6. He completed his studies with the help of a government scholarship, which aims to help low-income but meritorious students.

In 2019, Chaudhary could clear the prelims. In his second attempt in prelims, mains but could not clear the interview rounds. Yaksh cleared the exam in his third attempt.