Latur, Sep 24 (PTI) Nilesh Gaikwad from Latur in Maharashtra, who achieved 629th rank in the UPSC 2020 exams, credited continuous study and self-confidence for his success.

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The Union Public Service Commission on Friday declared the results of the examination, conducted annually to select IAS, IFS and IPS officers, among other civil servants.

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A total of 761 candidates cleared the coveted civil services examination 2020, with engineering graduates Shubham Kumar, an IIT Bombay graduate, and Jagrati Awasthi, who completed B.Tech (electrical engineering) from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, bagging the first and second ranks respectively.

"Continuous study, self-confidence, hard work and perseverance are key to success," Gaikwad, an IIT Bombay alumni, who had cleared the UPSC exams earlier and was undergoing training as 'assistant defence controller', said.

He thanked his parents, Dr Shrikant Gaikwad, a former principal, mother Professor Anita Gaikwad and brother Shailesh as well as teachers for being successful in an extremely tough and competitive exam.

The civil services (preliminary) examination, 2020 was conducted on October 4 last year. As many as 10,40,060 candidates applied for the examination, out of whom 4,82,770 appeared, a UPSC statement said.

A total of 10,564 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in January, 2021, and, of them, 2,053 qualified for the personality test (interview), from which 761 were finally selected, it said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)