Ankur Garg, Engineer to IAS, youngest IAS officer at the age of 22

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The Youngest IAS officer in India sounds fascinating, right? Well, it is, Ankur Garg was an IIT graduate and was able to to the UPSC CSE exam on his first attempt at the age of 22.

The journey from being an electrical engineer to an IAS officer has not been a very easy one but surely an aspiring and motivational one, Let’s get a brief look into the account of his journey.

Family, place of birth, and the early life of Ankur Garg.

Ankur Garg belongs to a very academically sound family and most of his family members are highly educated and are at the top of their careers, Ankur Garg’s father is a well-known doctor of plastic surgery and his mother is also a doctor and specializes in child health.

 Among the family of doctors, Ankur decided that he wanted to pursue engineering as he had a great interest in new technology so he chose the branch of electrical engineering.

Not only this Ankur Garg also has a sister almost his age and she is also a doctor, in the year 2003 she was pursuing an MBBS from the college of Lady Hardinge Medical College.

Ankur Garg and his family were mainly from Patiala, Punjab.

The mindset of Ankur Garg and early achievements.

From the early days of the 3rd standard, only Ankur Garg was determined to be an IAS officer and he was always highly motivated by that thought, he worked hard throughout his whole educational journey and never let anyone down.

Though he belonged to a family background of science and thus he took engineering as a choice of subject for his graduation, Ankur also did well in his entrance exam and was able to get into one of the best engineering colleges that is IIT, Delhi.

But still, out somewhere he was always very much interested in subjects like history and economics and never really stopped learning about those subjects even if they were not in the curriculum of his current course, IAS Ankur believed that if someone wants to learn and gain knowledge about any particular thing then the sky is the limit and there are endless sources for that as well.

After finishing the process of exams and clearing all the 3 rounds of the exam- the Prelims, Mains, and the Interview round Ankur was somehow very convinced and confident with his performance and knew that he would crack the exam and must get a very good rank, though after receiving the AIR 1 he was also shocked because he knew he did well but he never expected to get the first rank.

What was the choice of subjects made by Ankur Garg for the exam?

• Ankur Garg chose the subjects in which he had a great grasp and those subjects were history, physics, and chemistry.

Before completing his graduation in electrical engineering Ankur Garg also achieved two international awards, which were awarded by the Institute of Lausanne and Paris.

Ankur Garg also was offered a six-digit salary after completing his degree from IIT but by then he has made up his mind that he wanted to serve his country first and thus he refused that offer and continued to prepare for his UPSC exams without any distractions.

Postings of IAS Ankur Garg.

• Ankur Garg started his journey as an IAS in the year 2003, in the period between 2003 to 2006 he was posted in the junior scale.
• From the year 2006 to 2007, he served as the sub-divisional magistrate in the sector of (District admin/land revenue), later in that year, he was also appointed as the CEO of Urban housing and development.
• By the end of the year 2007, he was promoted to the district session judge for law and justice, for a tenure of 2 years 
• By the end of his tenure in the year 2009, Ankur served as the secretary to the governor.

Postings after the year 2013 were more challenging for IAS Ankur.

Designation	tenure	Work profile
Managing director	2013 – 2014	Power and energy supply
Deputy Commissioner (In the southwest region)	2014 – 2016	District admin, land revenue/ MGMT
PS to ministers	2016 – 2018	Staff officer
director	2020 – 2021	Personnel training and general administration

• Ankur Garg also held many important positions in Delhi, Chandigarh, and Arunachal Pradesh as well.
• One of the biggest achievements till now of IAS Ankur is when he was posted in the district of Tirap, Arunachal Pradesh, where he successfully implemented a project that included the whole district, where he needed to convince the farmers of that area to shift their method of cultivation from “shifting cultivation” to terrace cultivation” and he was very much successful to convince them to adopt the sustainable method of cultivation.

Why IAS Ankur Garg is making headlines?

• Ankur Garg left for the US to pursue his master’s degree at Harvard, in the year 2018 he wanted to study international development this was an economics-oriented course as he already has his passion for the subject and this course would help him look into contemporary problems in international development,
• He also informed in one of his interviews that as a policy the theoretical aspects and knowledge of this subject would highly help to directly link and solve the problems related to the development issues.
• This course also deals with coming up with problem-solving and coming up with more innovative and effective measures for several social issues.
• After completion of this course, Ankur Garg was awarded the Raymond Vernon Award for commitment to international development.

This award is awarded to those who are committed to international development and prove to be responsible citizens of the country and also to the ones who have the potential and confidence to lead a community.

• This award was rather an addition of achievement for IAS Ankur as he was least expecting to get this award amidst the covid 19 pandemic and was a surprise to him as well.

• Also at Harvard he did excellently and scored 171 out of 170 in the subject of macroeconomics, his degree was also signed by one of the most famous and prestigious macroeconomists Professor Jeffrey Frankel.

The secret sauce for success in one of the toughest exams, UPSC.

• As quoted by IAS Ankur Garg, UPSC is a tough exam, and what makes it tougher is the competition, so to get ahead of the crowd, one must make up his mind from the beginning very smart at planning and strategizing his study routines.

The only way to get a good rank is to be single-minded and focus on a particular thing and that should be getting good grades and developing a personality that is appreciated and admired and that kind of personality is very much required to be selected for the exam as the interviewer wants an overall package and not someone who is halfway there.

The strategy of AIR 1 Ankur Garg is to crack UPSC in the first attempt.

• Reading newspapers is a must along with other political and daily affairs containing journals, blogs, and magazines are also to be taken into consideration as this is a very important part and one should not fail in making this a part of their daily schedule
• to stop mugging up portions and get a depth understanding otherwise it’s just a waste of time
• Internet is not bad to use as it has many valuable resources to get access to which are hard to get in offline form, so one must be connected to the online world as well just keeping in mind the time they spend on it and for what reason.
• One must keep their goal in mind and in front of their eyes so that their unconscious brain is also very aware of what all these efforts are being made and also this should remind the students to give their 100%
• Multitasking is a dangerous risk, yes that might work for some but in most cases, it doesn’t, UPSC demands full time and complete dedication from an aspirant if one is not able to do so, then the chances of cracking the exam become harder.
• Previous year papers and mock papers are for practice purposes and not for mugging up, so stop mugging your practice papers and give more time to the source material of the topics, because it’s very meaningless to mug up questions from a particular topic without gaining knowledge properly about the actual topic.
• physical and mental fitness is also an important aspect no one has told you to sit in a gloomy dull room with a pile of books for the whole day without doing any kind of other activities there are 24 hours total in a day and if one knows to manage the time it could be put in to use very efficiently,
• Topper Ankur Garg believes in self-study, he thinks that you can hardly join coaching and institutes for doubt-solving and materials but the end game completely lies with self-study if a student is not providing proper time to self-study he or she must consider themselves to be in the wrong path.

Read our SUCCESS STORIES.

FAQs

Q: Who is Ankur Garg, and what is his background?

Ankur Garg is a notable individual who achieved the remarkable feat of becoming the youngest IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer at the age of 22. Could you provide some background information about his education and early life that led to this significant accomplishment?

Q: What motivated Ankur Garg to pursue a career in the Indian Administrative Service at such a young age?

What inspired Ankur Garg to take on the challenging path of becoming an IAS officer, and were there any specific events or influences in his life that guided him towards this prestigious career choice?

Q: How did Ankur Garg balance his engineering studies with IAS preparation?

Managing the demanding curriculum of an engineering program while concurrently preparing for the highly competitive IAS exam requires exceptional dedication and time management. Can you shed light on how Ankur Garg successfully balanced these two significant aspects of his life?

Q: What challenges did Ankur Garg face on his journey to becoming the youngest IAS officer, and how did he overcome them?

The journey to becoming the youngest IAS officer undoubtedly involves numerous challenges. Could you highlight some of the obstacles Ankur Garg faced and share insights into how he navigated through them to achieve his goal?

Q: What impact has Ankur Garg’s achievement had on the perception of young aspirants in the field of civil services?

Ankur Garg’s accomplishment as the youngest IAS officer is likely to inspire many young individuals aspiring to join the civil services. How has his success influenced the perception of young aspirants, and what lessons can they draw from his journey?

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