Deepak Rawat is a famous Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.
He is very popular on social media and has millions of subscribers on his YouTube channel.
Deepak Rawat’s life story of becoming an IAS officer and a youth icon despite facing many setbacks is very inspiring.
So read on.
Introduction-
Deepak Rawat was born on 24 September 1977 in Uttarakhand.
His father is a retired employee of the Mussoorie Municipality and his mother is a housewife.
Deepak Rawat is the eldest son and has three younger sisters and a brother.
Wanting to become a ragman-
At the age 4, Deepak Rawat was attracted to garbage.
Thanks to his curiosity, he started collecting the garbage present in his neighbourhood and used to display his collection to the people.
At that time, Deepak Rawat wanted to grow up to become a ragman.
He was attracted towards this profession because this job involves exploring new things and places.
Deepak Rawat gave up on this idea when he started attending school.
Schooling-
Initially, Deepak Rawat and his family used to live in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand but they shifted to Mussoorie for his education.
He did his schooling in Mussoorie and here he completed his 12th standard.
An underachiever-
As a child, Deepak Rawat didn’t have a good attention span and because of this, he used to score low marks.
Also, he disliked studying.
As Deepak Rawat couldn’t study well, his parents were worried about his future and during that time nobody thought that he would grow up to become an IAS officer.
As a child, he had a passion for repairing electronic gadgets.
And once when Deepak Rawat scored very low marks in his exam, his father decided to join him in an electronic repair shop as a handyman.
Even though he was an underachiever, he continued his education.
Choosing science-
Deepak Rawat was interested in studying arts but as there wasn’t an option of studying arts in his high school, he half-heartedly chose science in his intermediate.
Even then, he continued reading history books on his own.
At that time, many of his friends were interested in joining the Indian Army.
So, most of his friends cleared the NDA Exam and CDS Exam and got into the Indian Army and Indian Air Force.
But Deepak Rawat wasn’t confident that he could pass these exams, so he didn’t attempt them.
He also felt that he didn’t have the required aptitude to join the Indian Armed Forces.
Introduced to IAS-
While in Mussoorie, Deepak Rawat noticed a bus of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy Of Administration (LBSNAA) and got curious to know about this institution.
And after enquiring a few people, he learnt about IAS.
Luckily, Deepak Rawat was a neighbour of Anil Raturi, a former DGP of Uttarakhand and Anil Raturi’s wife was an ACS officer.
So, he met her to learn about how to become an IAS officer and she suggested that he move to Delhi and study there.
Choosing arts-
After completing his intermediate, Deepak Rawat successfully convinced his parents that he would further study arts in Delhi instead of engineering.
So, he joined Hansraj College – University of Delhi to study for a Bachelor of Arts Honours in History.
As Deepak Rawat was passionate about arts, he studied very well.
He passed out from Hansraj College in 2000.
While studying B.A., Deepak Rawat befriended a few Bihari people and they taught him the methods to prepare for the Civil Services Exam.
Two options-
After completing B.A. Hons (History), Deepak Rawat had two options to choose from.
The first one was to do a Master of Arts (M.A) and the second option was to pursue a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).
During that time, Deepak Rawat attempted the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) but he didn’t choose to study LL.B.
Studying MA and MPhil-
Finally, Deepak Rawat chose to study for a Master of Arts in History (MA) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
He chose this even though some people suggested that he not study from JNU as they felt that he would be required to do so much research as a researcher here that he wouldn’t be able to focus on the Civil Services Exam.
Subsequently, Deepak Rawat also studied for a Master of Philosophy (MPhil).
Becoming financially independent-
While Deepak Rawat was studying MA in JNU, his father decided to stop sending him bank drafts.
His father opined that as he was 24, he should stand on his own feet because he (Deepak Rawat’s father) was earning when he was his age.
Thankfully, within that month, Deepak Rawat got selected for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and started receiving ₹8000 on a monthly basis.
Preparing for Civil Services Exam-
Deepak Rawat started preparing for the Civil Services Exam in his final year of MA.
In his initial attempt, he cleared the Preliminary Exam but failed to clear the Main examination.
Even in his second attempt, Deepak Rawat couldn’t pass the Main exam.
Then, he thought of making a career in journalism and becoming an anchor but his sisters encouraged him to attempt the Civil Services Exam once more.
His parents also provided him with the much needed emotional support.
Becoming more precise-
During that time, Deepak Rawat’s handwriting wasn’t good and also his writing speed was very slow and due to this he used to not complete writing answers in the Civil Services Exam.
So, he thought of overcoming this shortcoming by writing even more slowly but in a very precise manner, so as to communicate the answers in a few words.
Cracking IAS-
In his third attempt, Deepak Rawat couldn’t get the desired rank so, he joined Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise).
Later, he beefed up his preparation and in his fourth attempt, he cracked the IAS.
Deepak Rawat secured the 12th rank in the 2007 Civil Services Exam.
He studied on his own and never took any coaching for the Civil Services Exam.
Working in many roles-
For a couple of years, Deepak Rawat worked in the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise).
Then, he became District Magistrate of Bageshwar district in Uttarakhand.
Then, Deepak Rawat worked as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Haldwani.
He also worked as a Chief Development Officer (CDO) and a District Magistrate of Nainital and Haridwar.
In Nainital, Deepak Rawat succeeded in completely banning polythene.
Prior to working in Nainital, he worked as a MD of Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd..
Later, Deepak Rawat also worked as a Kumbh Mela officer.
He is famously known as a firebrand officer and is very active on ground zero.
Using social media-
Deepak Rawat is very popular on social media and uses it constructively for good governance.
He uses social media to connect with the public and actively publishes videos related to his duty on his YouTube channel by the name, Deepak Rawat IAS.
This YouTube channel was started on October 30, 2017 and currently has more than three million subscribers.
His family-
Deepak Rawat is married to Vijeta Singh and is blessed with a son and a daughter.
He currently lives in Mussoorie.
Some interesting facts about Deepak Rawat-
- Deepak Rawat loves reading and philosophy.
- His hobbies are trekking and singing and he likes spending time in solitude.
- Deepak Rawat adores old classic songs.
- If he wouldn’t have become an IAS, he would have become a travel writer.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Deepak Rawat?
Tell me in the comment section below.
About Author
Hello folks, I'm Naveen Reddy.
I love writing the inspiring success stories of people so as to inspire you.
Enjoy the well-researched, thorough articles!
Every article takes many days of effort; so, why not pay it forward by sharing them and spreading positivity.