Born in Bharatpur, Rajasthan IAS Anju Sharma faced setbacks during her early academic journey when she failed in her Class 10th pre-board examination, and later in Class 12th exams, failed in Economics subject.
Cracking the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE), one of the toughest exams in the country, is usually considered the domain of the academically brilliant, and most of the “success stories” one comes across are of brilliant students who always excelled in studies and for them, UPSC seems like a cakewalk.
However, there are “average students” who faced failures in their early academic journey, but learned from their mistakes, and cleared the UPSC exam through sheer will and hard work. One such example is the story of IAS Dr Anju Sharma, an IAS officer who once failed to clear her Class 10th and Class 12th exams but through dedication and hard work, cracked UPSC CSE in her very first attempt.
Here’s her remarkable story.
Who is IAS Anju Sharma?
Born in Bharatpur, Rajasthan IAS Anju Sharma faced setbacks during her early academic journey when she failed in her Class 10th pre-board examination, and later in Class 12th exams, failed in Economics subject. However, she remained undeterred by her early failures and started working on her weaknesses.
Anju’s hard work and dedication paid off as she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Science (BSc), securing a gold medal for her efforts. Later, she also completed her MBA and began preparing for UPSC exams.
In 1991, at the age of 22, Anju Sharma cleared the UPSC CSE in her very first attempt to become an IAS officer, proving that initial failure hardly determines one’s true measure, if ever.
IAS Anju Sharma career
IAS Anju Sharma belongs to the Gujarat cadre and her first posting came in 1991 when she was appointed the Assistant Collector of Rajkot. Later, she became the Collector and also held other key posts in various districts of the state, including Gandhinagar. Owing to her brilliance, IAS Anju Sharma continued to scale the bureaucratic ladder, being promoted to Special Secretary, Secretary, Principal Secretary, and currently serves as Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture.
Tips for UPSC aspirants
IAS Anju Sharma credits her UPSC success to detailed preparation. Her advice for aspirants is to all go in full prepared and not depend on last minute preparations. Anju says this from experience as according to her these mistakes were what led to her failure in Class 10th and 12th.