IAS topper Gaurav Agrawal - गौरव अग्रवाल

 The challenges of public service and an opportunity to serve people drove Gaurav Agrawal, the 2013 IAS topper, to aspire a career in civil services shunning a lucrative investment banking job with a top MNC in Hong Kong.

This was the second attempt of the 29-year-old Jaipur boy, who is currently under training at National Police Academy after he was selected for the IPS with 244th rank in the UPSC exams in 2012.

"After finishing my studies in IIT and IIM, I worked in a top MNC in Hong Kong for four years. It was a highly paid and comfortable job in the investment banking sector but I decided to go for civil services due to its distinguished elements," he told PTI over phone from Hyderabad.

"I found that the job of a civil servant is more challenging and very distinguished. The civil servant understands the issues and problems of people and has a chance to serve the people, so I finally decided to quit the job and returned to India for the preparations in 2011," he said.

Agrawal said he attended coaching classes for six months in Delhi to prepare History and then returned to Jaipur and did almost 10-12 hours self studies daily.

"I was motivated by my father, mother, elder sister and other family members, who guided me in my studies," he said.

Agrawal holds a Bachelor of Technology (computer science) degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and MBA (Finance) from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow.

He went for the IPS training in December last year after writing the Mains exam in his second attempt.

"I was happy when I was selected as IPS. When I passed the mains exams in second attempt this year, I spared some time and prepared for the interview during the training schedule and today I am very much happy on having topped the exams," he said.

Agrawal thinks that the scope to serve people is higher in administrative service as compared to the police service.

His interview was held only a few days before his marriage on June 4. His wife Preeti said she was speechless when she got the information about her husband's achievement.

"I am very happy and speechless," she said in Jaipur. His father S C Gupta, who is a manager in Jaipur dairy, and housewife mother Suman Gupta said their son was now the 'gaurav' (pride) of the nation

.