Interview Board: Mr Vijay Singh ( Ex Def secy GOI and ex Chief Secy, MP)
Good morning sir, good morning ma’am (one lady member), good morning sirs
Cm: yes come in, come in and have a seat
Thank you sir
Cm: So Jatin, you are working somewhere? (looking at my application form,turning it around)
Me: sir, earlier I was working with a managment consulting firm in Bangalore.
Cm: what did they do ?
Me: Sir,they are a management consulting firm providing globalization advisory services to their clients in Europe and US and I was a part of market expansion team which helped
clients expand into new markets and service lines.
Cm: what kind of help you gave to clients?
Me: sir, we gave them reports and presentations on possible solutions to their problems, for example we helped one of our clients expand into cloud computing domain in India and identify potential sectors which they should target.
Sir: okay, so that was a good job so what gets you here. Ias is your first option ?
Me: yes sir
Cm: so what kind of work profile are you looking for yourself in ias ? Any specific sectors you
would like to work in?
Me: sir, I would actually like to have diversity in work profile, a diversified portfolio, which would be a continuation to my earlier work. Also I want to work in rural areas because 70%
of our country is still in rural areas…(he stopped me in between)
Cm: you are from Delhi. So have you filled Delhi cadre as first option?
Me: no sir, I have filled Rajasthan ( I was very relieved to say this, felt a tinge of satisfaction about my intentions to join services)
Cm: good, so you want to work in areas where there is majority of rural population? Me: yes sir
Cm : tell me some things you would focus on in rural areas,any particular areas ?Me : sir basic services such as education and health,also sit I would like to work on convergence of schemes in rural areas. Like we have mgnrega and Indira awas yojana ,we should try reducing the pilferages through utilising NREGA works for IAY. Sir also e governance in tele medicine and education since we have shortage of resources in our country.CM: Started thinking about convergence aspect, and why we still haven’t implemented it, seemed like thinking over what I had said, giving a curious as well introspective look. Uttered something like I don’t why these people are still not doing it.. passed it on to the second member.
Member 2:M2 : So, our country is facing power deficit, what kind of power you suggest we should adopt , thermal or nuclear ?
Me: sir, we should Have an optimal mix of all depending on the need of the areas and the resources available.
M2: But people, are protesting over the nuclear power plants being setup, do you think they are justified?Me: Sir, to an extent they are because we as a govt have not been able to tell the people the kind of benefits nuclear power would accrue to them, also there has been certain misinformation and misconceptions about the nuclear power and its negatives.M2: So you
think it’s only misinformation or something more?Me: No sir, not only that but we also
haven’t been able to provide the benefits of nuclear power to people of the region, if we can
ensure that electricity and rest of benefits actually go to people of these regions people will
surely be supportive of such projects.M2: Okay so there have been concerns about CAD and
finance minister also took some steps in budget can you elaborate on that ? ( he left it very
open ended)
Me:Yes sir, our gold and oil imports have increased our CAD substantially and finance
minister has taken some steps in this regards. He has mentioned that only imposing duty on
gold may not be such a good idea and therefore he has introduced Indexed inflation bonds,
so that people invest more money into savings rather than gold, attracting FIIs and FDI into
the country.M2: Anything about exports?Me: Yes sir exports also are a very important part
but considering the situation of EU and US markets it may not be easy to overcome faltering
numbers in short term, we do need to improve our export competitiveness though for which
finance minister has mentioned of incentives for fab facilities for semiconductors and
incentives to SME’s also.M2: And do you think RBI can play some role in this by increasing
the interest rates or something?Me: Sir, I think interest rates are a double edged sword
which if we increase may affect the industry badly and reduce their outputs and we decrease
may mean people investing less in the savings and therefore ending up buying more
gold.Member 3:M3: About child marriages in Rajasthan and ways to tackle it since I filled
Rajasthan as first option. (he looked like a person with social sciences background, or
perhaps psychology)
me: Sir we need to deal with the problem at two levels, legal and social sir, Legally we need to
ensure that strict implementation of law takes place and police forces are provided adequate
power to crackdown on such marriages.Also, sir socially since this is a social problem and
only through right education in colleges and schools and making people aware about the ill
effects of girls getting married at an early age and the kind of problems they have to face later
in their lives.M3: Anything about the incentives?
Me: (I should have mentioned that, don’t know how I missed it) Yes sir, incentives too are a
very good idea,we need to explore themM3: What about the kind of strategy for the elders of
the rural areas? how will you convince them? Me: (This was a very difficult question to
answer and one which I still don’t know the answer in definite) After thinking for a few
moments, I said sir to them I would ultimately try and tell that it is their children who are
going to suffer, girls who have suffered due to early marriages should be shown as examples
to draw an emotional connect in their case.m3: okay,what you mean by e-services?Me: Sir,
services which are delievered to people through electronic devices and use of the internet are
called e-servicesM3: So don’t you think people cannot even use them because they don’t
know how to?Me: Yes sir, we need to create capabilities amongst people and install physical
infrastructure.M3: Nods, passed it on to the lady member.
Member four M4: (lady member, she seemed the most disinterested of all in the board)M4
:What do you mean by Mega food parks?
me: Ma’m they are zones being created in the country for promotion of food processing
industry and making India a leader in the same and several incentives are being given along
with the installation of world class infrastructure. M4: She asked me is there something
related to farms and linkages in themMe: I knew about this aspect but didn’ take a guess
because I wasn’t really sure on it.M4: What is trickle down effect?
Me: ( I realised I actually wrongly answered it, my idea of trickle down effect was completely
flawed) Ma’am creating such growths of pockets within the country in several regions and
expecting that growth spread to other nearby regions.Member 5M5: How will you use ICT
for spreading information about government services?Me: Sir, I have been a volunteer for
Ministry of I& B myself and been using twitter and facebook account for the same.M5: No
no, tell me about rural areas, they don’t have access to these accountsMe: Sir, we are already
distributing Akash tablets we can put in pre installed applications also through mobile and
Sms based services for the same.m5: What are western disturbancesAnsweredM5: What are
anticyclonesAnswered it but fumbled in between, should have been better.m5: their has been
recent increase in temperature in bombay, rainfall, different weather, what do you think is
reason behind this?Me:: Sir, sorry, I am not aware of it.m5: so you worked at CEERI in
Image processing, what was it about ?Me: Sir, We designed an algorithm which would take
in input through a video camera and tell whether a person has a happy, sad or a neutral
face.M5: no no, doesn’t it haven’t application in image analysis?me: Sir, I am not aware of it,
I haven’t worked on itm5: what softwares you use for image analysisme: Sir, we used Matlab
and Labviewm5: you use matlab for image analysis? in space research?Me: Sir, I am not
sure if they use it in space research.m5: what about softwares for designing electronics?me:
sir, in college we used pspice for designing the ciruits,m5: What kind of satellites are being
used all over the world todayme: sir, remote sensing and geostationary ( should have
answered polar and geostationary)m5: remote sensing?me: yes sir,m5: give me
examplesme: sir, recently we launched risat 2 …and GSAT 19 also which is being used for
communication purposes.m5: what do we use to launch satellites into space?me: sir rocket
:P, sorry sir Space launch vehicles.m5: Okay tell me what principle is the launching vehicle
based on? what engines are we using?me: sir, on the newton’s third law sir, every action….
cryogenic engines sir.
Chairman Again:Cm: you play cricket? do you follow it too?me: finally something in my area,
I felt so relieved after that Member grilling me on space research unencessarily!CM: do you
think sehwag should have been dropped ? me: No sir, had I been selector I would have given
him one more chance, given his record and performance for India in past.Cm: But don’t you
think we give too much to this records and respect, don’t you think both these sachin and
sehwag should be dropped.after all reflexes play an important role , sachin gavaskar were
better at the age of 20 than 30,Me: Yes sir, they do but then in case of sachin I think he
played much better in his 30s than the 20s. Sir also Geoffrey boycott scored a hundred at the
age of 41.CM: ohh you see that was only one hundred that too against India, anyone can
score against India, everyone started laughing, I couldn’t control myself too.Me: sir, there is
very important South Africa series coming up and they are world number 1 team, if we drop
both sachin and sehwag we would have a very inexperienced team line up which would need
some guidance from the seniors and therefore we should have a mix of young and
experienced in the team.CM: Okay, thank you MR jatin .Thankyou sir, thank you ma’am.
Have a good day. thank you
My overall impression was okay, I should have answered the question on trickle down effect
correctly, also some small questions on satellites, ( though it has nothing to do with my
application form, also child marriages could have been better)
I could have done much better, but needed a little luck on my side, for being asked on my
hobbies and interests which are so diverse and definitely unique to a lot of candidates,
perhaps keeping some more nerves could have helped but I tried giving my best in
preparation and otherwise.
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