A 26-year-old candidate from Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, who was ranked 131 last year, has topped the 2005 civil services exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

S Nagarajan, a BITS Pilani alumnus, was ranked first out of 422 candidates.

After his first attempt in the IAS exams last year, Nagarajan was selected for the Indian Railway Traffic Service.