Saturday, February 23, 2013

UPSC IAS INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE (24)


24 April 2012
07:43 PM

Interview with Rajni Razdan board. 23.04.12

CH: name, DOB, Roll NO
CH: name the Indian soils
Me: started with red soil, black soil, peat soil, desert soil etc…
CH: is this is scientific way of telling describing soil?
Me: no mam, (with smile) but I am unable to recall the names
Ch: ok, tell the vegetation in india
Me: again I started with montane, deciduous, evergreen forest…
Ch: can we say it tropical mansoon vegetation, tropical deciduous forest, tropical desert etc…
Me: yes mam, this is true.
Ch: where india lies…in tropics?
Me: yes mam (smiling)
Ch: how you find out bpl?
Me: mam, we have consumption measurement for person that in rural area if he consumes 2400 cal

Ch: but can you say how much calorie he has taken
Me: no mam
Ch: then…how will you say whether one person is BPL?
Me: I could not say that planning commission has given monitory based data of BPL and said I don’t
know how it is actually calculated.
Ch: but you should know…
Me: with little smile, yes mam
Ch: which is the neighbor having largest border with india?
Me: Bangladesh
Ch: what is the length?
Me: mam, approx 4200 km
Ch: okay, which is shortest?
Me: after thinking for 4-5 secs… mam Bhutan.
Ch: wrong answer…Slightly loudly

Passed on to the M1

M1: okay, u r mech engg, can u tell me what is space elevator?
Me: after thinking a bit… …. I said sir, I don’t know (I had read it for the mains but could not recall is
properly)
He felt if he has asked wrong question from me…
M1: you are from IITM, there was a recent debate that girls should not come out of hostel after 11
pm and even if they come they should have an escort, do you have idea about it.?
Me: sir, I don’t know about it but in my view freedom of girls should not be curtailed in way and they
should be treated equal to the boys. If they are creating nuisance or obscenity then there is needed
some restriction other they have equal rights.
I never knew this issue, but issue is actually security as per the administration but people in campus
say that because of gals and boys roaming in the night time they want to keep the girls in the hostel.
(this is as per the hindu report on april 15th). they term it ridiculous, sexist and discriminatory.

Here I don’t know whether I should have touched upon this question, I did not knew full picture. But
he did not ask further question on this.

M1: if I tell you that there is honest but inefficient officer and dishonest and very efficient
subordinate below you, whom would you choose?
Me: sir, I will choose the honest but inefficient person, because I can trust on him. And sir, an activity

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Me: sir, I will choose the honest but inefficient person, because I can trust on him. And sir, an activity
is a cooperative group effort. I will try to motivate him and help him and ask him to improve his
work. so that his performance will improve and I will work with honest person.
M1: suppose you are a DC in rural area and there are many deptt where woud you like to work first.
Such as civil supplies, etc(gave name of 3-4 deptt).
Me: Sir(with energy), I would like to work in the supplies deptt because food is the basic
requirement of the people and until this basic requirement is meet which cannot move further. Then
I will move upon the implementation of the various development schemes….
M1: okay, but what about the healt and the education deptt…
Me: yes sir, these are also very important I would work upon these two also.

He passed on to other member M2

M2 was a god send person for me. He asked very easy question from and I feel very much thankful
to him, whatever be the final result.

M2: you know ragging? Suppose you are DC then how will you check this?
Me: I thought for 5-6 seconds looking slightly downward at the table… sir, first things we have
penalize the perpetuators of this and give them exemplary punishment. Then at the time of the start
of the session we have to create awareness among the senior students to stop it. Then also to the
junior so that they don’t simply bear it and they should report the matter immediately to the
concerned authority. Ragging cannot be finished in a day or two but with these provision we can
reduce it over a time of 1-2 sessions.
M2: recently there was tsunami warning in the Indian ocean what would have you done as DC?
M1: after thinking 3-4 sec… Sir, first thing I will do to spread the information via local TV, radio etc.
then providing info to the industries, RWA and the fisherman association. So that they will come out
of the sea. And sir even if eventually is there, damage will be less and this will be learning for the
future response.
M2: do you about the recent SC judicial pronouncement about the RTE?
M1: again thinking for 3-4 sec… sir, under this judgment 25% reservation has been provided to the
underprivileged children of the society in the private unaided non minority institutions. But sir, we
have thought about the balance 75% children who will not get quality. Sir, education is the best
investment a country can make for its progress and so should try to provide quality education the
100% children so that will not have need for such acts and judgments.
M2: recently we are seeing that quality has been decreasing in the private institution, what we
should do?
Me: …… sir, we need a regulator to maintain the quality in the education inst. Regulator will help
maintaining in correct teacher student ration, lab and research facility etc. (I said some more but
unable to recall now)
M2: if you r made a DC of vizag wthat would be your priorities?
Me: ….. sir, my first priority would be improvement in the infrastructure. Sir, vizag is called city of
destiny and large number of people come to vizag for jobs. There has been started some new infra
projects has not been completed so I first look into this. Then are large numbers of housing
requirement and small colonies are setting up, I will work upon the issue of housing. And sir, vizag is
getting polluted because of large number of industries there. I will try to check the pollution to keep
the vizag a sustainable city.

Passed on to the M3

M3: tell me about your work profile, working in refinery.
Me: told with vigor and told the projects I handled. I told him that I worked on clean fule projects.
M3: what is clean fuel project
Me: told that due to direction of goi, OMCs are producing bharat stage IV fuels so that they will have
lesser emissions.
M3: what is CDM?
Me: I tried to recall it but I was confused and said that I am unable to recall it.
Then he asked me this question in other way, Then I told him that we take up green tech project and
reduce the GHG emissions and we can sell them to the develop world.

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reduce the GHG emissions and we can sell them to the develop world.
M3: what is Kyoto protocol?
Me: explained correctly with all the details.
M3: here he asked me some ambiguous question. He said that we have large dependence of the
fossil fuel, how to reduce the dependence? Give me some practical answer.
Me: I thought for 5-6s seconds and said sir we have to reduce our energy consumption… and sir we
are doing research in electric vehicle, hydrogen and fuel cell etc…
M3: but we have larger energy demand in the future then how can we reduce consumption…gave
some data about the energy demand in the last and this FYP.
Me: sir, then we have to move towards renewable energies such as solar energy, wind energy and
nuclear energy also…
M3: but then nuclear energy has its own problem, solar also…
Me: yes sir… yes sir…nodded in full agreement and said with the smile.
I don’t kow which direction he was asking me to go. I could not think anything else…

M3: u know about hafiz sayyeed?
Me: yes sir, he is LeT terrorist and recently US has placed a bounty on his head.
M3: what is his importance to india?
Me: sir, he has been engaged in spreading terror and responsible for the recent terror attacks in
india. He is criminal for india.
M3: criminals like dawood and sayeed can ever be brought to india?
Me: though for a while…yes sir but both countries should cooperate with each other
M3: do you see any possibility in the future seeing the present developments.
Me: said with smile…yes sir… it is possible in the future.

Passed on to the M4

M4: what is refining known technically?
Me: I did not know it but I said after bit of pause… Sir, it is crude distillation and crude get separated
into various components such as petrol, diesel etc depending on their boiling points.
M4: still I think he did not get the right term and again I repeated same answer it briefly.
M4: can we produce more of diesel than petrol?
Me: yes sir, but it depends on the type of crude we have, every crude give some fixed percentage of
distillates in standard distillation process.
M4: okay, suppose there is large requirement of diesel so can we do it?
Me: I thought for a moment and said, sir I don’t know exactly what they do but it is possible.
M4: do you know about the procurement prices govt fixes for the various crops? Also said something
more related to it…unable to recall now.
Me: though for a while and asked him…sir r u talking about the MSP? Then other member said yes,
the same.
Me: sir this is the price fixed by the govt for the crops such as wheat etc. to protect farmers from the
market forces. In this case farmers would the profit on his investment. I said 2 more lines…

Suddenly I heard the “Thank you”. I turned toward MADAM and said thank you with smile and said
thank to all the members. I was expecting more questions. But had to vacate the seat…

I my opinion I faltered badly in the BPL question. I should have done better. I prepared it but was not
very clear in the issue and hence lost a good chance to impress the Chair. Over all I gave all the
answers taking 3-4 sec time all with pleasant mood without any sign of nervousness or lack of
confidence.

nothing related to hobbies, home state etc...

now everything is in the god's hand.

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