Meet woman, who studied MBBS, later cracked UPSC with AIR..., became popular IAS officer for these reasons, shares similarities with IAS Tina Dabi, she is from...

IAS officer Saumya Jha has become a big name in Rajasthan's Tonk where she revolutionised education, and at a very young age has experienced different designations in the civil services. Her dedication towards her work and her distant vision what makes her stand out from other civil administration officers. Saumya Jha is a 2017 batch IAS officer who originally belongs to Bihar but has lived in Madhya Pradesh for many years. She studied MBBS and then cracked the UPSC exam.

Who is IAS officer Saumya Jha?

Saumya Jha completed her studies from Bihar after which she went to Delhi to study MBBS at Maulana Azad College. She initially aspired to become a doctor. Her mother is also a doctor in the Railways, and her father is an IPS officer. After completing her MBBS, she gave the UPSC exam for the first time in 2016 and cleared on her first attempt. In the UPSC CSE exam she attained AIR 58 and became an IAS officer.

Saumya was first allotted Himachal cadre where she was inducted as an IAS officer for the first time. However, after two years, in 2019, she was shifted to Rajasthan cadre. Here, she was first made CEO of Jaipur District Council after which she was posted as SDM in Girva and Udaipur. Later, she was posted as Tonk's collector and is the youngest collector in the district. Here she not worked beyond education and seized slaughterhouses in large quantities. She was also posted as the joint secretary of the CM for a brief time.

How Saumya Jha revolutionised education in Tonk?

IAS officer Saumya Jha launched the ‘Padhai with AI’ initiative in the Tonk district, which transformed education in Rajasthan. Under this initiative, the schools introduced artificial intelligence (AI)-driven learning tools. An initiative by the community to adopt technology addressed the issue of low performance among students. The transformation came after Saumya observed that students were unable to work towards their ambitions due to their low academic performance while she visited various schools in the district. However, after the introduction of AI, studies became more engaging, inclusive, and effective for students.

Saumya also observed that not only students but teachers also found it hard to fulfill their academic duties due to hectic election-related responsibilities, which effected the quality of education. “Compounding this, many families in Tonk, traditionally reliant on agriculture, prioritise farm responsibilities over formal education. This leads to fluctuating school attendance, particularly during the Rabi harvest season. This seasonal exodus from schools significantly impacts students’ continuity in learning. Those months are crucial for students as it is this period when most revision is expected to happen before the annual examination,” said the IAS officer.

She recognised these issues and came up with the innovative idea of ‘Padhai with AI’ which the district administration launched on September 2024. The initiative aimed to bridge a gap between learning effectively and teaching methods to upgrade the comprehensive learning experience.

How is Saumya Jha similar to IAS officer Tina Dabi?

Tina Dabi and Saumya Jha both are from MP and IAS officers from the Rajasthan cadre. Saumya Jha became IAS officer a year after Tina Dabi who became IAS in 2016. Though Tina topped IAS with AIR 1, Saumya also secured a good rank. Both have approximately same age as Tina was born on November 9, 1993, and Saumya Jha was born on June 8, 1993. Both are popular among people of Tonk.