IAS Anu Kumari Biography: Details About Her Current Posting, Optional Subject and UPSC Strategy

Anu Kumari ranked first among all the female candidates. After Anu Kumari posting, she has helped UPSC aspirants by launching her blog. Anu Kumari’s strategy, tips for exam preparation and her overall experience can be found on this website.

Anu Kumari’s story is one of the motivations for women all over the country. Being 31 years of age (as of 2017), and a mother of a four-year-old boy, she has achieved this remarkable feat.

It is a huge challenge to prepare and succeed in a highly competitive exam like the UPSC IAS examination. This is true, especially for women, as they need to juggle a lot of responsibilities at home, as well.

IAS Anu Kumari Biography

Anu Kumari IAS is 31 years old and was born in Sonipat, Haryana, on November 18, 1986. Anu Kumari is from a Jat Hindu family. Baljit Singh is her father’s name, and Santro Devi is her mother’s. Her family consists of two brothers and one younger sister.

Giving up a well-established career, living far away from a 2-year-old child, and studying for an exam with a low success rate are just a few of the obstacles Anu Kumari overcame in order to pass UPSC.

She came from a poor family, and because her father’s income was insufficient, her mother supplemented the family’s income by selling milk. While studying for her B.Sc. She used to commute to Delhi every day by train (Physics).

Also Read: Sadaf Choudhary Biography: Meet a Person Who Secured AIR 23 by Studying at Home

Her Husband

Surprisingly, Anu Kumari’s IAS husband is not from her profession. IAS officers, on the whole, prefer to marry someone from their field because the job is quite demanding, and someone from their field will understand the challenges of the job better.

In the case of Anu Kumari’s IAS husband, however, this is not the case.

She is married to Mr. Varun Dahiya, a New Delhi-based businessman. Rihan Dahiya, their four-year-old son, is their only child.

Attempts

Anu Kumari cleared the UPSC IAS exam in her second attempt. She had to go through many hurdles before she could succeed. She quit her job in the corporate sector in the year 2016 and devoted herself to preparation, after failing the first time.

She fell short by just one point, in the preliminary round. However, she did not let failure or disappointment overtake her. She took it in the right spirit, never gave up and worked even harder.

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First Attempt

Anu was also concerned that if she failed the exam, she would have difficulty confronting her family and in-laws. She had also given up a well-paying job in order to pass the IAS exam.

She only had two months in hand when she took the IAS for the first time. As a result, she was unable to pass the examination, but this gifted young lady narrowly missed passing the preliminary examination by one mark.

Such a setback could have easily broken someone in her position, but she remained steadfast in her desire to be known as Anu Kumari IAS.

Her Education

Anu Kumari studied B.Sc (Hons) Physics and later pursued an MBA in Finance and Marketing. She worked at a private firm for nine years. She enrolled at a training institute in Delhi, while preparing for the UPSC IAS exam, the first time.

She stayed with her parents for a while, so that she could concentrate in a better manner, on her preparation for the IAS exam. Her main optional subject for IAS was Sociology.

Her UPSC Journey

She began her career in Mumbai before relocating to Delhi after her marriage. Her brother suggested that she take the IAS exam while raising her child and working in Delhi at the same time. Her maternal uncle was also a pillar of support, promising to cover Anu’s and her child’s expenses during the time she plans to study for the IAS.

She then persuaded her husband and in-laws, and after their approval, Anu began studying for the IAS. Anu left a well-paid job at the time because she had always wanted to be known as Anu Kumari IAS.

Tough Decision for Her

This was a difficult decision for her because her husband was self-employed and she was the only one in the family with a steady income. She went to her maternal home to prepare because she didn’t have enough time at her in-laws’ house.

She used to study at home, but when her son demanded her attention, she went to the library to study. When she returned home, however, the son would not leave her alone. The goal was being defeated because her son was taking up so much of her time that she couldn’t devote to her studies.

Also Read: Best Online Coaching for IAS: Which Platforms Should You Try for UPSC?

More Infor about the UPSC Topper

She not only passed the exam on her second attempt, but she also received an AIR 2 in this prestigious exam. Anu Kumari was so dedicated and determined that she only went to see her son after passing the IAS interview process.

Such dedication and determination are ample proof of a mother’s strong will, and it was only because of this rural girl’s strong will that she became an Indian Administrative Officer.

Anu Kumari Marksheet

Anu Kumari scored 153 in Essay (Paper – One), 102, 129, 134, 101 in the General Studies papers (Paper Two, Paper Three, Paper Four, Paper Five). She secured 163, 155 in the two optional papers (Paper Six and Paper Seven) respectively.

In the written papers, she scored a total of 937 and in the personality test, she obtained a score of 187. Her impressive final score was 1124.

Anu Kumari Strategy

First and foremost, she did not receive any coaching for the GS papers or her optional. She did, however, take part in a test series for her optional Sociology, which greatly aided her, and she also gave mock interviews at various institutes.

Anu Kumari Booklist

For the static portion of the exam, she relied on the NCERT books and other standard books.

For example, for Geography, she utilized class XIth and XIIth NCERT books; for Politics, she studied Lakxmikanth’s book; for Indian National Movement she used Spectrum book; for Economy, she made use of Shri Ram printed notes, for Environmental Studies she used Shankar IAS; so on and so forth.

When it came to current affairs, she depended a lot on online resources and one source that really stood out was insights on the India website. On this website, she used to read about the daily current affairs regularly and attempt the MCQs.

She also did their online test series frequently. Basically, these were the sources she referred to. Other than these, she used to refer to compilations of some other magazines in order to quickly revise the name of various schemes and what they pertain to.

Also Read: Which is the Best Online Coaching for UPSC? A Comparative Study to Help You Make the Right Choice

Her Notes

She hadn’t done much notes preparation as such, especially for the preparation for prelims. When it came to mains, she had started preparing a few soft copy notes, particularly for sections like important statistics – GDP of the nation, growth rate, how much was spent on factors like health, education, names of significant committees and so on.

About the important current affairs that were going on in the country, she prepared very short, precise, condensed and crisp notes so that she would be able to revise them quickly and easily on the day of the mains exam.

Her preparation of notes was subject-wise. She had four Word documents- GS-I, II, III, IV. For the essay paper as well, she prepared notes in soft copy, wherein she had gone through various resources and jotted down important points.

She had also compiled the quotes by eminent people and current affairs that could be asked in multiple essay topics. In a similar way, for her optional, in order to correlate the optional with the recent affairs, she had prepared a document in the format of soft copy, for that too.

UPSC Preparation Tips

On her blog, Anu Kumari has listed several of her strategies. According to her, one can start by going through the course from a standard resource from any good teacher that can be bought in the market.

This has to be made as to the basic material and then, it has to be supplemented with a few other resources such as IGNOU books, Harlambos book, Ritzer etc.

If possible, one must join a test series. A question bank has to be kept and it must be gone through. The previous years’ questions need to be studied, in order to understand the level of one’s understanding and also, the level of preparation.

By doing so, it will be possible to find out whether one is able to answer those questions or not, and if there was some topic that might have been missed while studying). She says, what content to study exactly and the resource from where to study it is a very individual thing.

Strategy for Prelims and Mains

Initially, her sources (to begin with, before Pre-exam prelims) were haphazard, incoherent and very extensive (they were based on multitude of sources of information available online).

After the pre-exam and before the mains exam, she narrowed them all down to a few resources and this narrowing down was definitely not systematic or methodical. Instead, it was very random and mostly influenced by factors like paucity of time.

It also depended on the guidance she received at the test series. So, there was no certainty that covering only what she covered would suffice for any other aspirant. So, she requests everyone to be cautious and pick what they feel comfortable with.

Anu Kumari Blog

Anu Kumari has shared her experience, notes and tips on her blog. It is truly a heartwarming move. She has gone the extra mile to help other aspirants.

She has conveyed everything in a very efficient manner – her daily schedule, her preparation strategy, her notes, the books she has referred to, etc.

Since then, she has been writing on various online platforms such as websites, other blogs, on Kindle Store, etc. She is also into writing about education and academics, in general, and has gained more than five years of experience, as a content writer and blogger.

Her articles are much appreciated by the aspirants of competitive exams and she has also received a very good rating on the Kindle Store.

Some of her strategy tips can also be found on her Instagram page, with this hashtag: #anukumari.

Optional Subject-Sociology

Some of her experiences and advice are as follows:

To begin, let’s state that preparing without guidance is difficult for those who do not have a background in this subject. She tried her hardest, but it was difficult for her to grasp the abstract concepts. After several readings, things began to make sense to her, but it was difficult at first.

Also Read: Sociology Optional Syllabus for UPSC 2022: Check Out the Updated Information for the CSE

Point Two For Sociology Preparation

Don’t take other people’s advice at face value. Someone (on the sociology telegram group) suggested that studying only two books by a single Indian author on Paper 1 and Paper 2 would suffice for the exam. (However, she discovered after spending a significant amount of time reading those books that this is not the case.) You can use such brief books to supplement some of the topics that you might not be able to find elsewhere or on the internet, but they are insufficient for thorough preparation.

IAS Anu Kumari Posting and Current Posting

The UPSC has confirmed the cadre allocation given by Delhi High Court to Anu Kumari. She became ineligible under the rules for failing to signify her cadre preference, in an online application form.

She had persuaded a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Rekha Palli that if it had not been for a technical glitch, she might have submitted her preference by the last date on January 29, 2018.

Anu Kumari attributed her success to her family members and she feels grateful to them for their support, all through her journey.

Conclusion

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