Muthyalaraju Revu, Ist rank, Civil Services Exam, 2006

He comes from Chinnagollapalem village in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, where his father and two brothers are farmers. Muthyalaraju studied in the village school and did his B Tech from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, and his Masters in Bangalore. His family borrowed money for coaching classes in Delhi. He got into the IPS in 2005, but tried again for IAS and topped in 2006.

"The death of my 12-year-old sister due to poor medical facilities in the village spurred me in the direction of the civil services."

Their story is often one of impressive mobility—the story of a changing India, as much as a changing civil service. Studious and focused 'Bunties' and 'Bablis' from village, tehsil and district schools sally forth in search of higher degrees, reaching Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University, sundry engineering and medical colleges and established state universities. Aboobacker Siddique, a farmer's son from Malappuram district in Kerala, makes it to JNU, where a section of the library, taken over by civil service swotters, has been christened Dholpur House, after UPSC's headquarters. Sujit Singh, son of a havaldar in Bihar, makes it first to Delhi's Hindu College, and then to the civil services. Anbukkumar, a constable's son from Tamil Nadu, goes to the elite Madras Christian College in Chennai for his MA.

However, an increasing number do not travel that far, picking up a degree or two from a modest institution nearer home, and a distance learning course. Many less known institutions are chipping away at the dominance of the civil services by established universities. The intake from Delhi University, even if still high, has declined considerably since the '70s. Likewise from Allahabad University, whose silver-haired alumni adorn the upper reaches of the bureaucracy. Calcutta University has fallen off the map. Showing up on the map are little-known colleges and universities in places like Tiruchirapalli, Warangal, Izatnagar, Kolhapur, Bareilly, Rohtak, Meerut, Bhagalpur, Amravati, Belgaum, Nagarjunanagar, Gorakhpur, Gulbarga, Bikaner, Sagar.... And three per cent of the intake is now from distance learning courses.