Meet UPSC 2020 AIR 44 Divyanshu Nigam, who lost his father to COVID-19 two months before interview

UPSC CSE 2020’s ranks are filled with stories of success in the face of adversity. One of the most inspiring ones belongs to 25-year-old Divyanshu Nigam.

Hailing from Lucknow, Divyanshu’s preparations for the UPSC CSE 2020 interview were in full flow when tragedy stuck in June 2020 when his father lost the COVID-19 battle.

Despite a loss that’s impossible to overcome, Divyanshu maintained his composure and ensured remains focused for the interview. In fact, adversity made him stronger and he dived into his preparations with a newfound, bigger motivation – to make his father, late SK Nigam, proud of his son’s achievement.

The chemical engineer from BITS, Pilani (Goa), was not new to UPSC pressure, with this being his third attempt.

Divyanshu recently revealed to a leading daily that he had cleared the prelims on the previous two attempts, but couldn’t advance further.

As he was preparing for the interview to finally crack his IAS dream, his father’s health deteriorated and he was admitted to the SGPGI hospital in Lucknow. Divyanshu put a brake on his interview preparation as the health of his father became the priority. Unfortunately, his father never returned home from the hospital.

Divyanshu got back to his preparations and cracked the interview, achieving an All-India-Rank of 44 in UPSC CSE 2020.

He dedicated his success to his father.

The soon to be IAS trainee has stated that he aims to go into healthcare to save lives.