IAS Toppers from Jammu and Kashmir: Kashmir IAS Topper List for UPSC 2019-20

Sixteen candidates from Jammu and Kashmir have cracked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Service Exam in 2019. According to UPSC’s list, there are 829 successful candidates.

The examination is conducted annually in three phases — preliminary, main, and interview — to select candidates for the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, and Other Central Services.

Abhishek Augustsya of Jammu, who is ranked at 38, is at the top of the list of the successful candidates from Jammu and Kashmir. This is the first batch of civil services officers from Jammu and Kashmir since Article 370 was scrapped and the state split into two union territories.

Recent IAS Toppers from Kashmir

There were 16 IAS toppers from Jammu and Kashmir in UPSC 2019. Abhishek Augustsya of Jammu topped the Kashmir IAS toppers list with AIR 38 and is at the top of the list of the successful candidates from Jammu and Kashmir.

He is followed by two other Jammu residents – Sunny Gupta (148), Dev Ahuti (177).

Kashmir IAS Topper List

1. Abhishek Augustsya (38)
2. Sunny Gupta (148)
3. Dev Ahuti (177)
4. Parth Gupta (240)
5. Asrar Ahmad Kitchloo (248)
6. Namgyal Angmo (323)
7. Asif Yousuf Tantray (328)
8. Nadia Beigh (350) from Kupwara.
9. Aftab Rasool (412) from Trehgam Kupwara
10. Sabzar Ahmad Ganie (628) hailing from a remote village of Gheeboom Kokernag
11. Majid Iqbal Khan (638), a resident of Shangus Anantnag
12. Stanzin Wangyal (716)
13. Rayees Hussain (747)
14. Mohammed Nawas Sharaf Uddin Sharafuddin (778)
15. Syed Junaid Adil (822)

Kashmir IAS Topper Abhishek Augustya

Abhishek Augustsya topped in J&K with 38th rank. It was his fifth attempt. He has been trying since 2015 and in 2018 he ranked 268th on the merit list. He was already undergoing probation at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts at Shimla. But now he will be moving to IAS.

Abhishek’s father is a zoology lecturer in a government higher secondary school in Sai close to the Indo-Pak border and his mother is a teacher in a private school. His sister is pursuing PG in surgery from GMC Jammu.

Since childhood, he had a social bent of mind to do something for the people and dreamt about civil services in school. In college days he met some friends, who were keen on civil services. They further strengthened his resolve. He did his schooling from DAV School in RS Pura and college from NIT Srinagar in computer sciences.

Most Famous Jammu and Kashmir Topper, Shah Faesal from UPSC 2009

Shah Faesal was born in the Sogam area of Lolab Valley, located in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. His father, Ghulam Rasool Shah, was a teacher who was killed by militants in 2002. Shah Faesal was 19 at the time. Not only was his father a teacher, but his mother, Mubeena Shah, as well as grandfather were teachers.

He is a 2008 batch graduate of the Jhelum Valley Medical College.

Shah Faesal from UPSC 2009

He holds an MBBS degree from Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar as well as has a master’s degree in Urdu. He finished MBBS at 26 and left IAS at 35.

In 2018, he was a recipient of the Fulbright-Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School. Before cracking the Civil Service exam, Faesal was the gold medalist at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, where he studied medicine. In 2009, he became the first Kashmiri to get first place in the UPSC civil services exam, which he also cleared on his first attempt.

He was also the first candidate from Kashmir in several years to be selected to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) through open merit. He was the fourth Muslim (after Independence) to top the civil service exam.

Also Read: Here’s How You can Use NCERTs Efficiently to Train Yourself for UPSC

Shah Faesal’s Retirement from Bureaucracy

Indian Administrative Service officer Shah Faesal, who had become the first Kashmiri in 2009 to top the civil services examination, announced in a Facebook post that he was quitting to protest against “unabated killings” in Kashmir and “marginalization” of Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces. In the post, he wrote that he had decided to quit the service owing to reasons including “lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union government” and “insidious attacks on the special identity of the J&K state and growing culture of intolerance and hate in the mainland India in the name of hypernationalism”.

Also Read: Here’s How You Can Create Timetable to Top the Toughest Exam

Conclusion

Jammu and Kashmir continues to have internal strife but candidates that want to work for their state and their nation continue to work hard to enter the civil service and do their duty towards the nation. Candidates should take this as an inspiration and continue to work hard as well.