Heritage alumnus Azar Zia cracks UPSC, bags 97th spot

Kolkata: Azar Zia, an alumnus of Heritage Institute of Technology has cracked the Civil Services examination securing the 97th position in all Indian ranking.

He is the third Muslim candidate from Bengal since Independence and the first in the past 36 years to become an IAS officer.

He is a BTech in Electronics & Communication Engineering in 2010 from Heritage Institute of Technology. He quit his job to sit for the Civil Services examination.

A past pupil of St James' School, Zia was a bright student right from school. After Graduation from Heritage Institute of Technology Kolkata, he went on to do his MBA at Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi. The 31-year-old resident of Tantibagan in Beniapukur, Zia said after completing the MBA course he got a job in Asian Paints as a brand manager. But the job did not attract him and he resigned in 2015. Zia joined the Hamdard Study Circle in Delhi to prepare for the UPSC exams. He cleared the exam in the third attempt. He had cleared the prelims in 2016 but fell ill with Chikungunya. "I took the exam again in 2017 and was confident of clearing it but never thought I would be in the top 100," said Zia, who thinks his experience in engineering and business management helped him.

"We are proud that Azar Zia has made our State proud in the Nation and we will be inviting him for an interaction in the inaugural ceremony of the induction programme of our new batch of engineering students so that he can share his experience with them, which will really be a source of inspiration for the prospective engineers," said Pradip Agarwal, CEO, Heritage Group of Institutions Kolkata. In May, Azar was felicitated at Rehnuwa-E-Niswan organised at Aliah University in the presence of Janab Jawaid Akhtar labour commissioner and former managing director at the West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation.