Zaheerabad: Visually impaired girl clears CAT and gets admission in IIM-Indore

Sangareddy: Overcoming all the hurdles that came her way due to being visually impaired, Kothakapu Shivani Reddy from Zaheerabad cleared the Common Admission Test (CAT) and scored the cut-off marks to secure a seat in 16 Indian Institutes of Management out of the 21 IIMs in the country. She has decided to take admission in IIM-Indore, one of the top management colleges in the country. Shivani Reddy, a resident of Zaheerabad town, has had a brilliant academic record since childhood. Though she was completely blind from birth, her parents Kothakapu Venugopal Reddy and Vijayalakshmi, who are farmers by profession, supported her in pursuing her studies. Reddy enrolled Shivani in Deonar School for the Blind in Begumpet, Hyderabad. Shivani was very active in her studies and extracurricular activities during her childhood. After scoring 8.3 GPA in her Class 10 board exams, her confidence grew that she could study and compete with regular students. She joined Master Minds Junior College in Zaheerabad town and topped the batch, scoring 921 out of 1000.

When she decided to join BBA at Sathyabama University in Chennai, she found an environment where she could meet people from different sections. Shivani cleared the undergraduate course by scoring 90 per cent marks in graduation. However, she started dreaming of doing a master’s degree while doing her graduation. After taking online coaching for six months in 2023, Shivani cleared CAT with 93.3 per cent. She received admission offers from 16 out of 21 IIMs, but decided to join IIM-Indore. Accompanied by her father Venugopal Reddy, she went to Indore on Tuesday to complete the admission process and join the hostel. Shivani, the second of the three daughters of the Reddy couple, said she wanted to join an MNC after completing her postgraduate studies. Interestingly, her younger sister Bhavani, who is partially visually impaired, also cleared the CAT exam this year and secured an MBA seat at the University of Hyderabad. While Shivani and Bhavani are being praised, the couple is on cloud nine over their daughters’ success.