Meet IAS Gaurav Agarwal, IIT-IIM alumnus, who cracked UPSC exam twice with AIR...

UPSC success story: Lakhs of candidates apply for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Exam every year to become civil servants including IAS, IPS and IRS. Some of them are from engineering backgrounds. Even there are numerous examples of engineers who have successfully cracked the UPSC CSE exam. One such person is IAS Gaurav Agarwal, who cracked this high-profile exam twice. But who is IAS Gaurav Agarwal?

Gaurav Agarwal is a 2013 batch IAS officer who is currently posted in Rajasthan. He first cracked the UPSC exam in 2012 with AIR 244 and got selected as an IPS officer. However, the next year in 2013, he again appeared in the exam and cleared it with flying colours with AIR 1. He became the first person in his home state to get AIR 1 in the UPSC exam.

Before appearing for UPSC, he was working as a Trader at Citigroup in Hong Kong. He worked there for around 3.5 years (Jun 2008 - Sep 2011) before quitting his well-paying job and preparing for UPSC. He also worked in IBM India Research LabsIBM for seven months.

Gaurav completed his graduation (2001-2005) in Computer Science from the prestigious IIT Kanpur. However, he failed in one of the subjects during the final semester which led him a year back. His degree got extended for another semester. After this, he cracked CAT in 2005 and did his post-graduation in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow.

Moreover, he has also written a book called 'Indian Economy' especially for UPSC and state PCS aspirants. He is a tech enthusiast who also loves economics. He is a cricket fan too. IAS Gaurav often shares posts regarding tech, UPSC and other topics on LinkedIn.

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