Meet woman, IIT graduate who left high-paying job to crack UPSC, became IAS in 1st attempt, was state topper with AIR…

UPSC is regarded as the toughest exam in our country. Annually, numerous of aspirants appear for the exam to become IAS, IPS, IFS, and IRS officers. And some of them have such an unwavering determination and passion that they clinch the exam on their first attempt.

One such inspiring story is of IAS officer Ananya Das who cracked the UPSC exam in the first attempt. 

Belonging to Odisha, Ananya was born on May 15, 1992. Her father worked at the Bank of India but is currently retired. She was always diligent in her studies in school. Thereafter, she graduated from The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay with a BTech in Computer Science. Later, she completed her MSc in economics from Birla Institute of Technology of Science (BITS) Pilani. 

Subsequently, she worked as a software engineer in a multinational company for a short period. Later, she also worked for three months as an executive intern at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Jaipur. 

However in between, Ananaya decided to change the course and began preparing for UPSC CSE exam. She left her job for preparations. She then cracked UPSC CSE 2015 on the first attempt and secured AIR 16. Consequently, she became an IAS officer from the 2015 Gujarat cadre. She was also the state topper in UPSC. She was formerly posted as the Cuttack Municipal Corporation's commissioner. 

Recently, Ananya Das was posted as the joint secretary in handlooms, textiles and handicrafts department, Bargarh after her transfer from post of Sambhalpur DM.

Besides her profession, she was in the news for her marriage with IAS Chanchal Ran, an IAS officer from the batch of 2014. She was previously married to IAS Abdaal Akhtar, but got divorced later.