[UPSC Interview 2022] – Transcript #259 : Manoj Soni Board, Geography Optional,

Date of interview: 31/03/23 Forenoon; 35 minutes around
Board: Manoj Soni Sir
Optional:  Geography
College- BTech + MTech in EE; IIT Kalyanpur
Profession (if any)- worked at Qualcomm; currently unemployed
Other keywords: Varanasi; running; ghats; cricket; old people; Physical education
Your experience in interview-

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Chairman

Please enter; It is advised to wear MASK but you can remove it if you want – kept wearing it throughout interview
1. You live in varanasi, how does it feel like waking up in the morning everyday? – surprised by the first question but handled it i guess
2. Kashi Vishvanath corridor banane me administrative challenges? – told; Which act was used in land vacation? – said land acquisition act – sir asked again – a bit awkward moment – i retreated on my stance
3. what one thing you observe at ghats apart from being calm and serene? – sir himself told my prepared answer; i said life is transient, everyone has to die at one point – sir said vairagi nature

Members

1. Malacca strait geopolitics – told
2. old age people problems? Don’t you think older people are themselves responsible for their condition by not interacting with others? old age homes too costly or in poor condition? How do you improve it? – told
3. difference between lakes and lagoons – told wrongly;
4. india’s biggest lagoon – realised here – chilika lake
5. Can a lake have brackish and freshwater both – said don’t know exactly but there is a place where the both meet and do not mix
5. Arctic countries – related geopolitics – told
6. Physical education – difference in being fit, tough, resilient? What should a young and an old civil servant should have? – thoda hesitated but told
7. Tim Cook – MNC CEO or topmost civil servant – which would have greater impact? What would you choose? – told
8. Haridwar – many lineage history kept in record books. What could be its future application? – could only tell one
9. Difference in Varanasi in recent years – told few points – told but hesitated – non fluent repeated a word thrice – vocabulary gave up
10. What is qualcomm into? autonomous cars? Is their car in market? – told
11 What is snapdragon i hear about qualcomm? – told
12. World Bank head? said not know exactly – would like to guess – ajay bagga said – banga it is
13. Malacca strait discussion? Geopolitics around it. Who controls it? – told
14. Which is your favourite area in Electrical? – said communications
15. Future of communications? – drove conversation towards 5g
16. What is special and different about 5g? Difference between 4g & 5g? – told

Utility of mocks or O2O (if any)- helped me cover DAF; gave aroud 10 – improved somewhat in communication but couldn’t improve much beyond a point;
Chankya mandal pariwar – very helpful; Chahal; Only ias were close; O2O with khan sir; ravindran sir;
Members listened patiently – didn’t interrupt in between; questions were deep – felt they were testing something with each question