Kanishak Kataria, 26, was at his Jaipur home with elder sister, Tanmaya, on Friday evening when he checked the result of Civil Services Examination. He jumped with joy and almost dropped his mobile phone when he found out that he had topped the examination.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced the result on Friday in which 759 candidates (577 men and 182 women) have been recommended for appointment to various services such as IAS, IPS and IFS.
Kanishak’s father, Sanwar Mal Verma, is an also an IAS officer and is posted as director in the social justice and empowerment department in Rajasthan. The UPSC topper’s uncle, KC Verma, is also an IAS and is divisional commissioner of Jaipur. His maternal grandfather, SL Bunkar, was in the state administrative service.
Kanishak went to school in Kota because his father was posted there or in nearby district Jhalawar between 2004 and 2010. An alumnus of Kota’s St Paul’s School, Kanishak joined a coaching for engineering entrance examination and made it to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, with 44 all-India rank. He did B.Tech. in computer science and engineering and went to South Korea to work in an electronic giant for one year and a half.
Kanishak returned to India to work in a US startup at their Bengaluru office before shifting to Delhi in March 2017 to prepare for the civil services.
It was during his work outside India that Kanishak got the idea of stepping into his father’s shoes.
“I worked outside India for some time and realised India also needs good quality development. If I can help in inclusive growth and infrastructure development, it will be much more satisfying than earning big amount of money outside India,” he says.
Did his father inspire him to get into administrative service? “My father has always been my role model. He has always inspired me but he never pushed me into civil services. It was a decision which I made on my own. I consulted him and my family. They were fully supportive of this decision,” he says.
Kanishak says he will enjoy this for some time and let this feeling sink it before he goes for training in August.
His sister is doing MS in ENT at SMS Medical College.
