Surat: The city again stamped its authority on one of the country’s toughest professional exams, with two students securing All-India ranks (AIRs) in the CA Foundation exam. The results spotlighted a story of grit from Navsari, where a bakery assistant cleared the exam while balancing work and studies to support his family.The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) declared its CA Foundation exam results on Friday, with two students from the ICAI Surat branch securing all-India ranks.Surat’s Vandan Bihani secured AIR 10 with 352 marks, while Dheer Murarka secured AIR 11 with 351 marks.Navsari resident Niranjan Tandel cleared the exam with 330 marks after overcoming financial challenges and working as an assistant at a local bakery.Speaking to TOI, Vandan Bihani said, “I chalked out the hard chapters and followed the modules given by the institute to overcome them. I gave 8 to 10 hours to studies every day. My father is a chartered accountant and I want to join his firm. I also want to be an entrepreneur. I am happy to get AIR 10 after topping the Surat CBSE Class-12 results.”Tandel’s success story stood out among the achievers. The Navsari student worked at a local bakery for more than seven months to help meet household expenses and pay the fees of his elder sister, who is pursuing a BSc (Nursing).“In first two attempts, I could not clear the exam as I was doing it part-time with my job. I needed to help my family by working at the bakery. On the third attempt, I cleared it as I had left the job for the last couple of months,” Tandel said.Other high scorers from Surat included Ismail Maheshri (332), Sanyam Bothra (330), Tanishka Mandhana (330), Jayesh Sharma (328) and Bhavya Goel (322).ICAI Surat branch chairperson Rahul Agrawal said, “A total of 2,125 students from Surat took the CA Foundation exam, of whom 458 students cleared it. At the national level, 90,217 students took the foundation exam and 18,124 students passed.”
