Shena Aggarwal (top), the topper, and Rukmani Rair, who ranked second. (PTI)

Bhubaneswar/New Delhi, May 4: At least 12 candidates from Odisha have qualified the Civil Services Examination 2011 this year, the results of which were declared today.

Anupam Shah from Bhawanipatna fared the best, with an all-India rank of 35. Shah, who holds a degree in engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Rourkela, said it was willpower and patience that helped him crack the test. “It was a big surprise for me. This was my third attempt,” he said.

Bhubaneswar boy Laxmi Naryan Mishra bagged the 56th rank in the country. He is now undergoing training as officer under the Indian Revenue Services (IRS).

“Nothing is impossible if one is determined,” gushed Mishra. Among other candidates from the state, who have got through the exam, are Debapriya Bardhan, Priyanka Das, Santosh Mishra, Sudhanshu Shekhar Mishra, Soumya Mishra, Supriya Das, Sachin Kumar Mishra, Sasmit Sourav Nayak, Sudipta Das and Suresh Behera.

For the second straight year, the top two positions in the Civil Services Examination 2011 were bagged by women — one an AIIMS graduate and a social scientist.

Shena Aggarwal, who holds a MBBS degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, bagged the top slot in the exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), results for which were announced today.

“I was pleasantly surprised with the result. This was my third attempt and I didn't expect to top. I am grateful to God,” said Aggarwal, a resident of nondescript town Yamunanagar in Haryana.

Rukmani Riar, a Master of Arts (Social Entrepreneurship) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, secured the second rank. Riar is a resident of Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

The third position was bagged by Prince Dhawan, who had done Master of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Dhawan is the son of an Income Tax Assistant Commissioner in Chandigarh.

His mother Indu Dhawan said: “My son was confident after the exam that he will figure in the first three. Since his younger days he was attracted to the civil services.”

A total of 910 candidates — 715 male and 195 female — were selected for appointments to various central services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others, according to a release by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Of the top 25 candidates, 13 appeared from Delhi, three from Jaipur, two each from Mumbai and Chandigarh, and one each from Hyderabad, Chennai, Dispur, Patna and Jammu centres.

The result also showcased the pan-Indian distribution of successful candidates in the examination. Candidates claiming domicile from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are in the top 25 list.

The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2011, was conducted on June 12. As many as 4,72,290 candidates applied for this examination, out of which 2,43,003 wrote the test.

According to a release by the Department of Personnel and Training, 11,984 candidates were declared qualified for the main written examination held in October-November, 2011, out of which 2,417 candidates were selected for the personality test conducted in March-April, 2012.