Karnataka's Nandini K R tops civil services exam

New Delhi, May 31: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday declared results of the prestigious civil services examination.

This year's topper, Nandini K R, is an officer of the Indian Revenue Service, and at present undergoing training at the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics in Faridabad.

Anmol Sher Singh Bedi is the topper among male candidates securing overall second rank. He is an engineering graduate in computer science from BITS, Pilani.

Ronanki Gopal Krishna from Palasa in Srikakulam district has bagged the 3rd rank.

The top 25 candidates comprise 18 men and 7 women.

An Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Nandini, who hails from Kolar (known for gold mining) in Karnataka, cracked the exam in her fourth attempt.

"It is like a dream come true. I always wanted to be an IAS officer," she told PTI from the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics in Faridabad, where she is undergoing probation.

"I put in a lot of effort. After getting selected in the IRS in 2014, I had taken the exam again in 2015 but could not crack it. I took the test again and topped it. It is a wonderful experience," she says.

Nandini got 849 rank in the 2014 civil services exam and was alloted IRS (Customs and Central Excise).

A total of 1,099 candidates (846 men and 253 women), including 500 in General category, 347 belonging to Other Backward Class, 163 from Scheduled Caste and 89 from Scheduled Tribe, have been recommended for appointment to various central government services, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said.

They include 44 physically handicapped candidates (22 orthopedically handicapped; seven visually challenged and 15 hearing impaired).

There are 220 other candidates in the waiting list.

A total of 1,209 vacancies were notified by the government, which were to be filled through the civil services examination 2016.

The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages — preliminary, mains and interviews — to select candidates for the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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