9. Transcript upsc interview 2014.............

Name: Akash Patel
Date: 5th May 2014
Session: Afternoon
Attempt: 1st Attempt
Board: A. P. Singh
Qualification: Masters in Hindi Literature
My interview was in afternoon shift, so I arrived
there at 1300 hrs. We were devided in groups of 6
each. Fortunately my group was so cheerful and
cool that 90%of my tension was released there
only. :)
I was alloted board of A. P. Singh sir, and was
taken to sit outside the room at 04:05. my
interview started at 04.15 and ended at 04.45,
thats half an hour which was average for my group.
NOTE- my interview actually was in hindi, here I
have translated it to english.
after entering and wishing everyone, here goes the
main thing-
When chairman told me to sit, he was reading my
DAF, and his expressions were like-""why we
members have to go through all this interview
thing. Its too boring man.""
chairman- so akash, you are masters in hindi
literature.
me- yes sir.
C- when did you complete your PG?
Me- in 2012 sir.
C-so what were you doing untill now?
Me- sir I was preparing only.
C- I mean job etc?
Me (confused as there was only 1 year gap)- no
sir.
C-What were your subjects in graduation?
me- sir, hindi lit, geography and med. history.
C- tell me something about international date line.
me (a little uncomfortable)- sir, its a imaginary line
on the globe which goes from north to south
between USA and Russia.
C-Does it go straight south?
me (still uncomfortable)- no sir, it diverts a little
near island of southern pacific ocean.
C- so whats its importance? How the date changes
around this line?
me (with a pause) sir, towards east the date
increase by one day and vice verca,( not so sure),
that is if we go anticlockwise, the date increases (I
wasn't sure what I was talking about).
at this answers chairman looked towards other
members and they all are nodding disapprovingly.
But I was so calm from earlier effect of my group
that I wasn't nervous at all.
then chairman passed the ball to member on his
left.
M1- what is Nsso Akash?
me- sir its an organisation which collects different
kind of data in whole india like employment,
income of people etc.
M1- why is this data collected?
me-sir any policy of govt can be effective only if
we know what is the ground reality. these data
helps govt to form better policies.
M1- So what is HCR, that is used by nsso?
Me- sorry sir I havent heard about that.
M1- are!! head count ratio, hcr?
Me- sir I dont know exactaly bùt I guess it may be
total number of people surveyed.(I havent googled
it yet but I guess most certainly I was wrong)
M1- what is PG, poverty gap?
Me- sorry sir I am not aware.
M1 ok, tell me when the census is done iñ india?
Me-sir every 10 years.
M1- when was the latest census .done?
Me- sir recently in 2011, and its provisional data
were out in I think april 2012, some of the final
data have also been published.
M1- we spend so much money in this, what is the
use?
Me (the same answer)- sir to form bettèr policy we
need to knowwhat are the statistics. and these
policies are important for development, specially in
developing countries, like in india we have a
population pòlicý. in this regard to know clèarly
where we are headed, we need to collect data.
M1- what data are given in census?
me- sir, total population, sex ratio, child sex ratio,
populatiion density etc.
M1- what about language data? How many
languages are spoken in india?
Me- sorry sir I am not aware exactaly how many
languages are there in india.
M1- hmmm, there have been many ammendments
to our constitution, which one do you think was
most important?
Me- sir I think 42nd ammendment at the time of
indira gandhi was very significant as it changed a
lot of articles and is considered a mini constitution
in itself.
M1- tell me some provisions of this ammendment.
Me (a little troubled, its hard to remember things
while in interview room)- sir there was a provision
that if council of ministers passes something,
president will have to give his assent.(I guess there
was something like that, not so sure). After a little
pause- sir I cant remember any more provisions
right now.
M1-how many ammendments have been made till
date?
Me-sir I am not sure, but I heard that 120th
amendment was pending in Parliament recently.
M1 (looking a bit surprised)-you mean to say we
have crossed number of hundred.?
Me (now confused)- repeated the same answer
with different language.
M1- okk, what is biodiversity?
me- sir as far as I remember biodiversity can be
understood at 2 levels, which are species diversity
and gene pool related diversity. species diversity
means existence of difference kind of species of
plants and animals, while gene diversity means rich
gene pool of species.
M1- so why this biodiversity is so much in news,
why do we need to preserve it?
Me-sir we need to preserve biodiversity for several
reasons. Every component of ecosystem has an
important role to play, whether we know it or not,
so if a particular species goes extinct, it will create
imbalance in whole ecosystem. apart from that, as
our research Is growing we are finding many
species useful, be that in health or energy etc. so if
we loose biodiversity we will loose possible
benefits that could be harvested.
M1 (nodding approvingly, and thus raising my
confidence)- so what are the recent initiatives by
the government in this direction?
me- (not able to remember something good)-sir
above all we are signatory of UN convention on
biodiversity, we have created NBA to protect
biodiversity, and recently we have put a
moratorium on GM crops, in order to avert any
possible threat to indigenous species.
M1-hmm. you see there is allopathy, ayurveda,
similarly there is homeopathy. tell me what are the
basic principals of homeopathy.
me (shocked how this question came up)- sir there
are two basic principles of homeopathy. 1. a
person can not suffer from two same diseases at
same time, that means if one has fever, one cant
have another fever at same time. 2. what causes a
disease, also cures the same disease. so sir if one
has fever, in homeopathy, one would me
administered something that would cause a fever
of greater intensity, this induced fever would then
supress the original fever as two fevers cant
coexist.
M1- dont you think vaccinations in allopathy also
works in same way?
me- sir there is is difference. vaccinations
introduce a weakened virous into body and there
after our immune system creates immunity and
tackels thae disease. here the disease dosent
actually develop. while in homeopathy the disease
is treated by DEVELOPING another same disease.
M1- There is a term LPG, what is that?
Me- sir its liquefied petroleum gas.
M1- no no...liberalization.......
Me (interrupting and smiling broadly)- yes sir, thats
liberalization privatization and globalization.
M1- yes, tell me about that.
Me- sir before 90s we had kind of socialist modell
of economy where govt had controll over all
economic activities. In 90s when economic reforms
happened LPG was introduced. If we take them one
by one liberalization meant reducing govt controll
like by license, quota, and tarrif on imports exports
etc. Privatization meant encouraging private
industries while globalization was integration of
indian economy with global economy.
M1- akash I am giving you a situation and I want
your opinion about this. You see, in indian election
the winning candidate is one who gets more votes
against him and less for him. How do you see it,
can we call it democracy?
Me (now confident and comfortable)- sir definitely
this first past the post system is very important
problem of indian democracy. There have been
some suggestions to change it by requirement of
50%+ votes but there are many problems in this.
M1- but this system is running successfully for last
six decades. There must be some positive points.
Me- yes sir, the first positive point that I can think
of is its simplicity. In india where a lot of people
are illiterate, we need simple system which can be
understood by people. Secondly, if we make
mandatory 50%+ votes, there will be a lot of bye
elections, and in a large country like ours we can't
afford many bye elections. So this current system
is running. (Now I think I could answer it way much
better)
M1-now we see a lot of small parties form a
coalition and form government. There is only on
paper a common minimum program, but in practice
they differ in many fronts. Do you think this is good
for us?
Me-sir undoubtedly there are a lot of problems in
coalition politics. Many a times Government cant
take tough decisions, other times decision making
process is slowed down. But still I think coalition
governments are good for a country with great
diversity like ours. Coalition politics ensures that all
kind of people find representation in government,
and administration is run ensuring everyone's
satisfaction.
M1-do you want to say that development is not
your priority but satisfaction of people is?
Me-sir I think I haven't made my point clear. I am
not saying development isn't my priority. Sir in
india, coalition government is the norm for last two
decades, still we are developing rapidly. So we
can't say that coalition government, per se, is anti
development. Sir what I meant to say that it is
better if every faction of people is represented in
govt. If we have a majority govt, it could take
decisions which could disturb some factions of
people.
M1 finally looked satisfied. He then passes to M2.
M2- akash there was held a very important
convention of hindi writers in Lucknow in 1936.tell
me something about that.
me (thanking god)- sir you are talking about
progressive writers association(?????????? ???? ???)
that was chaired by premchand. they followed
marxist ideology and hence declared that the role
of if lliterature is not to entertain but to raise voice
of exploited class. this left a very important
impression on hindi literature.
M2- what iimpression did it leave exactaly?
Me- sir after this a whole new era started in hindi
literature named Pragativaad which raised voice for
betterment of lower and oppressed class. and
though pragativaad ended after a few years as a
mmovement, the tendencies of this movement can
still be seen in contemporary literature as in adam
Gondavi.
M2 (looking satisfied)- was there any clash
between Pragati and prayog?
Me (now happy happy)- sir we can see the
difference of opinion Between these two at 2
levels. One at ideological level and other about
form. At Ideological level pragativaad fully followed
Marxist ideology while prayogvaad was anti
ideology, prayogvadi were of the view that we will
experiment and find our own truth, we will not
follow some pre set ideology. At the level of form,
pragativaad's objective was to convey the message
of poetry in simplest language so that people can
connect with it, hence they didnt give any
importance to outer form of poetry. While
prayogvad regarded poetry as art, and hence form
was very important for them, that's why we see
the""shilp"" of hindi poetry raises is bar in
prayogvad.
M2 (looking satisfied)- there was a very important
poetry collection published in 1943...
Me- sir you talking about ""taar-saptak""..
M2-yes, who was the editor?
Me-sir it was Ajneya.
M2- Ajneya have written novels also.
Me-Yes sir. He has authored shekhar ek jeevni and
nadi k dweep. But I haven't read any of them so I
don't much about them. ( I actually had read
shekhar ek jeevni, but that's too tough a novel to
be attempted, so I left it ;) )
M2- there is a term digital devide, what is that?
Me- sir it is related to access to technology. People
of urban center generally have good access to
technology, while in rural areas the case is
different. Due to this there is a gap between these
two groups, this phenomena is called digital devide.
It affects level of development.
M2- does it also affect education in any way?
Me (thinking)- sir it does indeed. Today's education
is very much technology centered. Education can
also be attained by distance learning by e
education, tele education etc. So those who dont
have access to technology also lag behind in
education.
Now it comes to M3. He was the most ""khoosat""
member, all other 5 candidates of my group were
also tortured by this member.
M3- akash tell me 5 problems of indian economy.
Me- sir can I have 2 minutes to think?
M3-take your time.
Me-Sir can I use pen and paper?
M3- yes please.
(I then started writing points on paper, but it's
really tough to concentrate there, I wrote down 4
points but couldn't find 5th one. And even those 4
weren't that good)
Me- sir, I can think of only four at this time.
M3-no problem go ahead.
Me-Sir firstly in agriculture, its share is decreasing
rapidly in gdp, but still a lot of people depend for
employment on it, this creates problem of hidden
unemployment. Secondly, we have directly jumped
from primary to tertiary sectors, so we havent
created enough jobs and thus facing jobless groth.
Thirdly, due to our international obligations in WTO
etc, we are often forced to take some steps, like
opening our markets even if it harms us. Fourth,
we have a population dividend that can be used for
growth of economy, but due to low education and
lack of skill development, this population can be a
burden on economy as well.
M3- you talked about jobless growth, lack of skill
development, low development of secondary sector
etc. Looks like you are basically talking about
single point.
Me( hairaan-pareshan :D )- sir in agriculture we
also have among lowest productivity per unit land.
(But M3 wasnt impressed)
M3- what is fiscal deficit and current account
deficit?
Me-sir there is always a gap between government's
income and expenditure. This gap is filled by
borrowing money. In genera this borrowed
ammount is called fiscal deficit. CAD is difference
of our imports and exports.....
M3- what kind of imports and exports?
Me- sir it can be both of services and goods. (At
this time I suddenly remembered and added-), and
sir unilateral transfers like remittances etc are also
counted under current account. So CAD means our
imports etc are greater than exports and we are
loosind forex.
M3- how much is our CAD?
Me-Sorry sir but don't know exact figure.
M3-in percentage of GDP?
Me-sir I am not very sure but it is around 2.6% as
per latest data.
M3-how much is indian GDP?
Me-sir I am not sure but it's something like 1.2
trillion$.
M3- how do you think poverty can be eliminated?
Me (again comfortable)- sir, poverty can effectively
be eliminated only by employment generation. So
we have to focus on developing our manufacturing
sector, this will raise their income and we can
tackle poverty.
M3- our economy is growing by less than 5%, is it
any good?
Me- sir after 2007-08 there has been global
recession, so owing to that we can say that this
growth rate is good, but it also true that potential
of developing countries is greater, so india can
manage a better growth rate.
M3-you mean due to prospects of other counties,
growth of some other countries is affected?
Me-Yes sir, specially in export based economies.
India is not that much dependent on export but still
we export specially to US and EU. So when
demand in these regions is low, our exports
decline. (Now I realize I should have taken some
time before answering this question, my answer
could have been much much better)
Now it was the last member.
M4- so akash you are from fatehpur.
Me- yes sir.
M4- who and when named it?
Me- sorry sir but I am not aware.
M4- why is fatehpur popular?
Me- sir its not particularly popular, however there
has been found some sites of archeological interest
like temples of gupta period, and poet sohan laal
dwivedi was from there only who is called rashtra-
kavi.( completely forgot to mention prime mini VP
Singh who was MP from fatehpur)
M4- we are a democracy, a lok tantra, still our
leaders are called raaj-neta, why is that?
Me- sir I think word raaj in raaj neta shouldn't be
related to raaj word in raaj tantra(monarchy), raaj
simply means way of ruling people, and in
democracy leaders rule, but with people's consent.
So I dont see ant contradiction in word raaj neta.
M4 - no no, you are preparing for civil, you would
be called public servent, lok sevak. Why dont we
call them lok neta instead of raaj neta?
Me-sir the word raj neta is popular among people
just because it has been in fashion for long, I think
thats why we still keep using it.
(But he wasnt convinced. I think he had some
particular answer already in his mind and wanted
to listen that only)
M4- ok. If we start calling them lok neta, what
difference would it make?
Me (a little uncomfortable by this question)- sir it
may define a change in mentality, but I am not so
sure if it would bring any real change at functional
level.
Now the circle completed and I was again
addressed by chairman.
C- there is a concept of happiness index. What is
it?
Me- sir this concept is basically of bhutan.
Normally development of any country is measured
by GDP, but bhutan introduced GHI for that
purpose. It measures peoples satisfaction on
mental satisfaction, environmental conservation,
health, education etc.
C- what are the parameters used in it?
Me- sir I dont remember all these parameters, but
theze 4-5 things are there.
C- what is its significance?
Me- sir its a good concept because any
development is fir people's satisfaction only and
GHI measures that. But we cant underestimate GDP
because resources of government depend on GDP
growth, if we dont have enough resources, we wont
be able to invest in health and education etc that
are necessary for people's satisfaction. But
ultimately, the objective of any development is
people's happiness only.
Then they all saw each other, nodded and said
thank you akash. I also thanked them, stood up,
placed properly the paper and pencil that I used
and left.