Ira Singhal Biography UPSC 2014- Age, Education, Personal life and Success Story

About Ira Singhal

IAS Topper, Ira Singhal has achieved All India Rank 1 in UPSC Civil Services Examination 2014 where her journey in UPSC  is unique in many unique ways from others. Every IAS topper who has a unique story of an inspiring story for millions in the country. Ira Singhal topped the IAS exam with 62% locomotor disability of age 30. Ira Singhal which showed the world she is no less. Neither in physical terms nor in mental terms who also has become an inspiration for many aspirants who dream to become an IAS with lots of challenges.

इरा सिंघल ने 2014 की UPSC सिविल सेवा परीक्षा में ऑल इंडिया रैंक 1 हासिल की। उनकी जिंदगी और UPSC यात्रा कई मायनों में अनोखी है। हर IAS टॉपर की प्रेरणादायक कहानी होती है, और इरा सिंघल भी इससे अलग नहीं हैं। उन्होंने 30 साल की उम्र में 62% शारीरिक विकलांगता के साथ IAS परीक्षा में टॉप किया। यह दिखाता है कि उम्र और विकलांगता जैसे कारक IAS बनने के सपने में बाधा नहीं बनते। 2014 की टॉपर, इरा सिंघल ने दुनिया को दिखा दिया कि वह न तो शारीरिक रूप से और न ही मानसिक रूप से किसी से कम हैं। वह उन कई उम्मीदवारों के लिए प्रेरणा बन गई हैं जो कई चुनौतियों के बावजूद IAS बनने का सपना देखते हैं।

Ira Singhal Education

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper who has completed her primary education at Sophia Girls School, Meerut and Loreto Convent School which is located in Delhi and she was among the school toppers from school days.

Ira Singhal went on to pursue her Graduation in Engineering from Netaji Subhash University of Technology and MBA from FMS Financial Management System Delhi. As she is capable of doing MBA from IIMs but her parents did not want her to study somewhere else other than Delhi which is because they have a fear of her disability so then they decided to pursue her Masters from FMS Delhi.

After her Post Graduation MBA, Ira Singhal has worked as a “Marketing Intern” at “Coca Colas and Strategy Manager at Cadbury” and while working there, during her stint at Cadbury’s, she felt the desire to appear for a public services exam and then become an IAS Officer. During the UPSC exams Preparation, Ira Singhal also taught Spanish at a language institute which is another level of inspiration for other aspirants.

Ira Singhal UPSC Marks

Ira Singhal has secured less marks in her UPSC Prelims but exceptionally very good marks in Mains in CSE 2014 which is because she was more focused on her UPSC Mains Preparation 2014.

Ira Singhal Prelims

The following are the Ira Singhal IAS Prelims marks is given below in a table form;

Ira Singhal Prelims Strategy

During her UPSC Prelims preparation she has mentioned that she has never prepared for Prelims as she was only prepared for Mains but she suggested studying the prelims course. As it’s not required to top prelims Exams as her main goal was UPSC Mains so if you do the mains course properly, you can generally pass prelims. 

Marks matter only in Mains and not in prelims and these days Prelims has become a very crucial portion so you must obviously do that but you cannot ignore the static portion. In fact it is best to finish your Mains prep once completely before the Prelims exam.

For the CSAT exam where she comes from an MBA background and didn’t need to prepare at all. But the books that helped her during MBA entrances Ira Singhal has mentioned are “Quantitative Aptitude” by “R.S. Agarwal” wonderful book and where she believes that the aspirants should also try to solve CAT exam papers and past year CSAT papers as they helped her during preparation of UPSC examination.

Ira Singhal Mains Marks

Ira Singhal Optional Subject in UPSC

Ira Singhal’s Optional Paper was Geography where she has secured 1082 marks out of 2025 and received 162 marks in her personality test where she has secured 305/500 total marks in her optional subject.

Ira Singhal Optional Booklist

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper where she has a more focus on her Optional Paper ,and she shared her Booklist individual for her optional paper which is given below for other future UPSC aspirants,

Ira Singhal Essay Writing Strategy

The following is the Ira Singhal Essay Writing Strategy for UPSC is given below;

• Choice of the Topic for Essay– As she chooses topics which can have something substantial to write while her Essay time she wrote on “Standardised Testing and Tourism” where both of them have multiple dimensions to talk about and a right measurement.

• Skills on Grammatical Errors- During the essay she  wrote a nice grammatically correct one but did not use too complicated words which is just to keep it easy to read for the examiner and to focus on not writing colloquial language and did try to keep my spellings in check.

• Subheadings – Ira Singhal mentioned  “I learnt from reading the blog of Gaurav Aggarwal Sir who was achieved last year’s AIR -1 in the UPSC 2013” 

• Presentation – Ira used to underline in a couple of places in the essay as well as she has understood the importance of presentation in Essay also she made one or two diagrams where she finds it is necessary to put.

Ira Singhal Interview Strategy

The following are the strategy in Interviews she mentioned that Interviews are generally about the three topics 

1. Choose the educational background  if that is what you are doing it will include everything written on your DAF and other stuff like hobbies, interests etc.

2. As per your personality and according to it will handle situations as they will give you 3-5 situations and ask you how you will handle them and you need to elaborate it.

3. There will be a question based on Current Affairs you should prepare just like you prepared for UPSC Mains and make sure you read 2-4 newspapers in the week before the interview for better understanding.

Ira Singhal Challenging UPSC

“Irony is that on medical and physical grounds where i m not eligible to be an IRS, a clerk or even a sweeper as per the rules do allow me to become an IAS (officer),”  Ira Singhal said

Ira Singhal had a disability mark of 62 % which is due to that UPSC denied her the seat as her condition did not fit into any of the disability categories enlisted by the UPSC according to them  but after first appearing for her UPSC exam in 2010, she found her file rejected in 2011 but she does not lost a hope in IAS and she had decided to challenge the verdict and filed a lawsuit.

She firmly believed that this decision may violate the Persons with Disability Act and Article 14 and 16 of the constitution where she moved to the  “Central Administrative Tribunal” CAT after which she was inducted as Assistant commissioner in the customs and central excise service.

Ira Singhal took Coaching For UPSC

Ira singhal said Coaching is not necessary for her to become an IAS Officer as she has a belief in herself and the resources included books and internet sources she mentioned below is enough for the dedicated aspirant to crack the exam. 

According to Ira Singhal Coachings is just about helping you make a routine and also it is only required for those who are starting their aim to become an IAS Officer. Sometimes it does not matter if you took coaching or not and it can be helpful to some and not to others. It is a very individual approach and about how much of a background you have and how much help you need. 

Ira Singhal Current Posting

Ira Singhal is currently posted as an Assistant Commissioners and where she is working in the field of Customs & Excise department of the Indian Revenue Services IRS. Previously she posted as a Assistant collector within the Government of Delhi and she was also working in the Department of disability and Ministry of social justice and empowerment for many years.

Ira Singhal Attempts in UPSC

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper who has not just qualified UPSC but also topped the toughest exam in the nation with AIR-1 in UPSC 2014 not  for once but four times in a row.

Note- In the year 2012 she didn’t appear as she was waiting for her court case result,as she was fighting for herself.

Ira Singhal Success Tips For UPSC Aspirants

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper who shares some valuable tips for UPSC aspirants for writing answers;

• Ira Singhal suggested using bullet points for solutions whenever it’s  feasible.
• Try to  remember to Highlight crucial points while writing the solutions.
• Ira Singhal has made the presentation a little better and attractive while making Incorporate diagrams if suitable.
• Ira Singhal’s attempted questions if you are confident about it, don’t try to fool the examiner.
• In UPSC mains, try to write answers without worrying about word count, focus on writing the solutions.
• Whenever you find use headings and subheadings where it’s necessary to make the presentation better in the essay writing.
• Ensure the answers grammatical errors properly, for better marks.
• Try to work on your base and make your base strong so that you can Read the NCERT books for the UPSC exam.
• Ira Singhal also suggested to stay updated with current affairs ,topics whatever is currently trending so that you can read regular newspapers.

Ira Singhal Awards and Accomplishments

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper who has received numerous awards during her journey and the list of some of her prominent awards and accomplishments are given below;

• Ira Singhal has received the tag “Brand Ambassador or Department of Disability” and “Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment”.

• Ira Singhal has received “Brand ambassadors for the Ministry of Women” and “Child Development & NITI Aayog”.

• Ira Singhal IAS also got a National Panel for Accessible Elections from the Election Commission of India.

• Ira Singhal has become the major part of the designing committee of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Examination Policy with regard to children with disabilities.

• Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper who was awarded as “India Today’s Woman of the Year, 2015”

• Ira Singhal was Awarded with “President’s Gold Medal for Topping the IAS Training.”

• Ira Singhal was also awarded the “First Ladies of India Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.”

• Ira Singhal has Recorded in the Limca Book of Records.

Ira Singhal Personal Life

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper who was born in Meerut on 31st August 1983 and Ira Singhal’s Father is Rajendra Singhal who is an Engineer and Ira Singhal’s Mother is Anita Singhal, an Insurance Advisor.

Ira Singhal’s father who was a businessman and after sustaining a huge loss in business then he moved to Delhi. Ira Singhal was born in Meerut as a normal child but after a few days passed by her rare disease of Scoliosis emerged.

“My family never treated me like I was physically handicapped and since childhood they taught me to take things like a normal person does as my struggle in this world was not because I am physically challenged but as a woman. I like any other woman subjected to discrimination or some backward thinking,” Ira Singhal said during an interview .

Ira Singhal Age

Ira Singhal was born on the “31st of August in 1983” and is currently 37 years old where she has become an inspiration for many aspirants in a very short age.

Ira Singhal Blogspot

Ira Singhal’s has a blog channel which is very helpful for aspirants who have currently started their preparations where she has a blog on the famous platform called “Blogspot” where she answers to some frequently asked questions related to her preparation journey. 

Link- http://irasinghal.blogspot.com/

Wind-Up

Ira Singhal is an IAS Topper whose journey was not so easy as she has faced a lot of difficulties but it takes hard work, single-minded determination, passion and strong will power to never give up. Ira Singhal journey has been nothing short of an inspiration and this article is all about the fiery “Ira Singhal” who is now one of the “Top Government Officers” in the country. “This is my country, my nation and it is my responsibility to change it for the better.” Ira Singhal

Neha Sharma

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