Sikha Surendran, a native of Ernakulam, has topped in the State at the Civil Services examination 2017 by securing the 16th rank. Thirty-three candidates from Kerala found place on the list of 990 candidates who have been recommended for appointment to IAS, IFS, IPS and other services.
It was the second attempt by Sikha Surendran, who graduated with B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from Mar Athanasius College of Engineering Kothamangalam, in 2015.
“I was unable to clear the preliminary examination in the first attempt. I later underwent training in Delhi and Malayalam literature classes in Pala,” said Ms. Surendran, who excels in singing and dancing too. S. Anjali from Kozhikode secured the 26th rank.
Second attempt
S. Sameera who came third at the State level with 28th rank also cleared the examination in her second attempt.
She completed B.Sc. (Physics) from Stella Maris College, Chennai, and M.Sc. from IIT Dhanbad. Later, she worked as a research assistant for five years in Germany.
“I had gone to Germany for experience and exposure. There too, I used to closely follow the daily happenings here. I always wanted to come back to my country and serve in some capacity here,” says Ms. Sameera.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala’s son Ramit Chennithala secured the 210th rank. A B.Tech. graduate in Computer Science from the Mar Baselios College of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram, he cleared the examination in his third attempt.
“When I completed my engineering studies in 2014, I had four job offers. But, I was not keen on taking up a job soon. The IT industry was not booming at that time. So I thought of giving Civil Services a shot and got full support from home. I prepared for the examination with Hari Kallikkat, who secured 58th rank,” says Ramit.
