Priyansha Garg

- The architect of India's economic reforms
- 13th Prime Minister of India
- 10th Leader of the Opposition
- 22nd Union Finance Minister
- 15th Governor of the RBI
- Bachelors, Cambridge
- DPhil, Oxford


But more than his remarkable achievements, Dr. Manmohan Singh will be remembered for his humility and unwavering dedication to serving the nation.

In 1962, despite being offered a position in Jawaharlal Nehru's government, he chose to honor his teaching commitment in Amritsar!

Dr. Singh's legacy is defined by his intellect, humility, and steadfast commitment to India's progress. His contributions will continue to inspire generations.

Rest in peace, sir.

30 days
26K+ Followers
3 Million+ Impressions
43K Engagements

30 days ago, on April 23, I decided to start writing again, just to catalog my thoughts and document my IAS journey and experiences.

For me, writing is an end in itself and the reward comes from the process itself. I never write to seek engagements or gain followers.

When a friend of mine inquired about strategies for gaining followers, I was struck by a sense of imposter syndrome. Despite my online presence, I realized I was unfamiliar with the digital marketing jargon he used. I don't have any content creation dashboard, no content calendar, or batch creation techniques.

But, here are a few things that helped me:

[1] I never have to search for ideas. Thanks to my role as an IAS, every hour I spend in service gives me a new idea to write about. For example, yesterday I visited a Self-Help Group in a remote village, which led me to reflect on the importance of risk transfer and risk mitigation through government intervention for effective value capture at community level. Later that same day, a visit to a model village prompted me to consider the scalability of these concepts.

[2] Detach yourself from the outcome. As mentioned, I never write to seek engagements or gain followers. It's an avenue for me to refine my thought process. It's fun, relaxing, and intellectually stimulating. The reward lies in the process itself.

[3] Never force yourself to write. I never follow a calendar or theme in my writing. I write when and what I feel like. This freedom helps me stay creative and keep the writing fun. Never let it feel like work.

[4] Don't edit or iterate too much. Due to a paucity of time, I usually post the first draft itself. I realize my posts are often not polished, but to me, they seem more authentic than posts produced after multiple edits and iterations. People and audiences connect with you when they feel something is coming straight from the heart.

[5] Write what you would want to read as an audience. Just a variant of Kant’s Categorical Imperative and the Golden Rule—do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

[6] Mix your writing styles—sometimes from the heart and other times with your brain. This helps break monotony and makes writing more enjoyable

I can't promise it will bring followers your way, but I can assure you, it will make you savor the art of writing and perhaps, fall deeply in love with it.

Who knows? Once you fall in love, the 'followers' just might follow!

Imagine being in 0.25% and still walking away empty handed.

The UPSC selects approximately 2,500 candidates every year for the CSE Personality Test (PT), commonly known as the Interview stage, out of over 10 lakh aspirants. This is roughly equivalent to a remarkable 99.75+ percentile - that is top 0.25%!

However, two-thirds of the candidates who appear in PT unfortunately don’t make it to the final list, despite their immense potential. These candidates often had to start from scratch for the next Prelims, and as a nation, we missed out on utilizing such talented individuals due to the limited number of seats.

Imagine being in 0.25% and not getting anything tangible.

But not anymore.

I often wondered: what if there was a centralized portal to showcase the marks and basic biodata of these capable candidates, making their potential visible to both public and private organizations?

Thanks to UPSC’s new initiative, this is now a reality. Through an MCA-verified API, public and private bodies can access this data to tap into the pool of aspiring civil servants.

A commendable step that benefits both the candidates and private+public bodies

I’ll be sharing more about alternative opportunities for UPSC aspirants on my Telegram channel. Link for TG channel in comments and bio.

Share it with someone who can benefit from it :)

Last week brought forth two events, distinct in nature but united by a common hidden theme.

Firstly, Koo, the Indian competitor to Twitter, ceased operations. Many individuals on social media asserted they had predicted this outcome, citing how VC overlooked the obvious flaws in the business model and a lack of innovation. They took pride in their accurate projections.

Secondly, the UPSC announced the results of the Prelims. Unfortunately, a friend of mine, who was on the boundary, did not pass. Once again, some acquaintances claimed they had foreseen this result, taking satisfaction in the precision of their predictions.

It was a vivid reminder of my own challenges and those faced by most of my IAS batchmates.

To the analysts of failure: predicting adverse outcomes is straightforward. One can simply predict that all startups will fail or that all UPSC aspirants will not succeed, and guess what? Statistically, these predictions will be correct 99.9% of the time!

Not a bad success rate for predictions. Right?

However, all people who engage in high-risk, high-reward ventures understand that. Statistically speaking, the default outcome is failure. Yet, it is the 0.1% hope for triumph that keeps our spirits alive.

You anticipated our decline, and so did we. But still, we embraced the challenge and dared to try.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.“