Dr. Artika Shukla is a 2016 batch IAS officer who secured All India Rank 4 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2015. Hailing from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, she completed her MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. Initially pursuing an MD in Pediatrics at PGIMER, Chandigarh, she chose to leave her medical studies to prepare for the civil services. Remarkably, she cleared the UPSC exam in her first attempt with just eight months of dedicated self-study. Her optional subject was Medical Science. Post her training at LBSNAA, she was allotted the AGMUT cadre and later transferred to the Rajasthan cadre following her marriage to fellow IAS officer Jasmeet Singh Sandhu.