Animesh Pradhan IAS/UPSC 2023-24 Rank-2

• Animesh Pradhan received ALL INDIA RANK 2 (AIR 2), the best ranking possible in the UPSC Civil Services Examination of 2023.
• Every aspirant has a different journey, but Animesh's is remarkable. With AIR 2, he topped UPSC on his first attempt.
• He has keen interest in debating, Journalism and free style dancing.

• From the very beginning Animesh was a Disciplined kid , he always desired for good marks.
• Animesh completed his education at DAV Public School in Odisha, where he scored 10 C.G.P.A.in 10th in 2015 and 98% in 12th in 2017.
• In 2021, he earned a 9.17 C.G.P. from NIT Rourkela, where he studied computer science engineering.
• At the college, he was also part of Student Media Body, at NIT Rourkela, serving as its chief coordinator, where he developed interests in Journalism and Debating.

• Animesh’s family is a very well-versed family, his father was Political science lecturer and his mother was a post graduate in History, so he got that environment of humanities right from the beginning, also there was no gender-defined roles way back in his home, as his family was a dual-career family.
• One thing he imbibed from his mother, that her mother converted every adverse situation into an opportunity.
• He finished his foundational education in Odisha.

• Right from his school days , his teachers motivated him in every way they could do, one of the instances he still used to talk about is, His teachers used to save his Father’s mobile number in their phones as “Animesh IAS”, this looks like a kind of belief that his teachers were having from the early days , that he going to become one.
• After completing his degree, he found a penchant for civil service, so he started preparing for UPSC exam
• With his hard work, he finally ended up with top marks in UPSC CSE exam 2023

• Animesh lost both of his parents , his father (when he was in class 11th ), and his mother( in March 2024, due to the Terminal cancer, that deeply affects him, as he wanted to show his success to his mother in her lifetime, but could not do so.
• Animesh after graduated from NIT Rourkela, also worked in Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) in Delhi, so it was challenging for him, to balance his studies with his Job, but this played a positive impact also, as he knew deep in his mind, that he has Job security if in case he would not be able to qualify the UPSC exam.
• For his time management, he used to live nearby his workplace to save his time, during lunch hour of 30 minutes, he used to read newspaper simultaneously, and thereby he studied for 5-6 hours a day, by focusing on small-small strategies.

Animesh says, that his preparation might be of 2 years, but the personality he developed was organic in nature , evolving through all these years, which played a compounding effect in his selection.

For Prelims:

• Animesh relied on Standard sources for reading like [M.Laxmikanth -Indian Polity & Governance ; R S Sharma - Ancient History ; Medieval History- Coaching compilation; Geography: Class 11th-12th NCERT; Art and Culture- Coaching Compilation; Science &Technology- Current Affairs; Economy- Coaching Material & YouTube videos ], but he emphasized to read the content only for exam clearing purpose rather than for just knowledge purpose, because only that will going to help you in the exam. In March-May just before the exam, he studied monthly magazine for Current affairs, made notes out of it, and revised it thoroughly.
• For CSAT part, he paid emphasis on practicing a lot of PYQs, and giving test series, prioritizing subjects like Reasoning and Reading Comprehension over maths , and he started doing practice for CSAT well in advance not just before the exam(this is a kind of advice also he used to give, as CSAT requires efforts).

For Mains:

• Animesh used to give weekly tests on Sunday for All the GS papers (GS-1, 2, 3 and 4), also he gets a weekly Current Affairs PDF which he relied for his current affairs preparation and not relied on the newspapers, since he did not had the time do so.
• He used to prepare hand-written notes for every topic of syllabus in an organic way(so that he can add Value added information later on). He used to supplement his every topic with ( a committee recommendation, SC judgment related to the topic, one quote and constitutional Articles related to the topic)
• He gave 40-45 tests for Mains beforehand and 30-35 tests for Prelims beforehand for both the stages of exam (Prelims and Mains).

For Interview:

• Animesh remained focused on personality development and articulation of his thoughts throughout his UPSC Journey
• Since he was working in Delhi, he took several mock interviews before the actual interview, he says that interview is a personality test, so one should be true in its own beliefs and just be honest in front of the Panel
• His interview went for around 25-30 minutes, and he read newspapers to brush-up his memory before the interview, which helped him a lot in excelling through.
• He used instagram , to be informed about all the regional news , which can be asked in the interview.