Tirupati: Poverty is not an obstacle to education. With self-confidence, hard work and proper planning, great success is possible. This has been proved by Dasari Indumathi, who secured an All India 75th rank in her very first attempt in the Indian Engineering Services (IES) examination conducted by the UPSC. She achieved this rank in the OC (EWS) category.

Indumathi hails from Singalagunta area of Tirupati city. Her father, Dasari Krishnamurthy, works as a lorry driver transporting provisions for TTD, while her mother, Madhavi, is an OT assistant at BIRRD hospital. Despite facing many financial difficulties, her parents ensured that both their son and daughter received quality education.

She laid focus on her education seeing the hardships of her parents and consistently emerged as a topper. While studying at TTD SGS High School, her interest in education was noticed and encouraged by headmaster K Krishnamurthy, who also extended financial support for her polytechnic diploma and engineering studies.

Indumathi scored 9.7 GPA in Class 10 (2017–18), 93 percent in her diploma course (2018–2021), and 90 percent in engineering (2021–24). She also secured top percentile marks in engineering and received a gold medal from JNTU Kakinada. She reached the interview stage at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as well.

After completing her UG engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), Indumathi had opportunities to join a software job. However, she chose to prepare for the UPSC IES examination instead. She underwent coaching in Delhi for one year and achieved an All India 75th rank. She said she would choose a suitable service based on her rank, with options including Railways, Defence, Aerospace and other engineering services.

Not content to rest on her achievement, Indumathi has now set her sights on the Civil Services examination in the next two to three years. She advised aspiring engineers to build strong fundamentals from the beginning, focus deeply on technical subjects, rely on standard textbooks for UPSC preparation and avoid distractions, especially excessive mobile phone use.