UPSC 2019: Two blind persons among 60 successful candidates in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Balanagendran D and Purana Sundari M, who are blind, are among the 60 candidates in Tamil Nadu who cleared the civil services exam. The Union Public Service Commission declared the civil services examination 2019 results on Tuesday.

Ganesh Kumar Baskar

, a graduate from IIT-Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad got all India seventh rank and topped the state this year. The computer science engineer from IIT quit his corporate job to pursue a career in civil services. He said cracking JEE and CAT exams gave him confidence and his was self-preparation.

Ganesh Kumar Baskar with his mother

There are seven candidates within top 100 from Tamil Nadu this year.

Speaking to TOI, Balanagendran said it was his ninth attempt and his family was a pillar of support for him during his preparation. He likes books and is a huge fan of Jayakanthan and Dan Brown.

The lack of eye sight did not make Poorna Sundari, 25 lose track of her dream to pass the UPSC examination, which she did with flying colours in her fourth attempt. She bagged the 286th rank.

Poorna Sundari


Sundari says she was a normal child, till the age of five and then her eyesight began failing. She was detected with a rare retinal degenerative disease, when she went to the first standard.

Doctors in the Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, told her parents that they would try to save her left eye, as the right eye had been completely lost, but the surgery was not successful and she lost sight in both her eyes gradually. It was her mother Avudaidevi who was her pillar of strength and read her lessons to her and helped her to prepare for exams.

Her father K Murugesan, who works in a private firm, says that her academic achievements always made him motivate her. She was a school topper with 471/500 in the SSLC examination and 1092/1200 in the plus two examination. BA English literature was the course she chose to do at Fatima College, where she passed out with flying colours.

TN students perform better

"Tamil Nadu students performed better than last year as 60 candidates cracked the exam this year," said S Chandru, academic head, Shankar IAS Academy in Chennai. Last year, around 45 candidates cracked the exam.

M Boominathan, director, King Makers IAS Academy, said more students from the state got the top ranks from the state this year. "Nearly 25 candidates can get IAS, IPS services," he added.


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