[UPSC Interview 2025] – Transcript #143: Anuradha Prasad Board, Malayalam Literature Optional, Kerala Home State

Date of Interview: 22 January 2026, Forenoon, 4th to go.
Board: Anuradha Prasad Ma’am
Optional: Malayalam Literature
Home State: Kerala

DAF Keywords: Kerala, Mechanical Engineering, Malayalam Literature, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Mentor, Digital Literacy, Solar Desalination, Mindfulness Meditation, Football, Formula One

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Chairman

1. Good morning, [Full Name]. What do your friends call you—your full name or a short name?
2. You have been a part of a Digital Literacy drive at the Panchayat level. Tell me more about it. What did you do, and what was your role?
3. What all components were included as part of the digital literacy course?
4. AI and robotics are replacing jobs massively, especially in the Mechanical Engineering field. How would we accommodate people whose jobs are being replaced? Where would they work? (Discussion and cross-questioning)
5. (Continuation from my previous answer) Elon Musk suggests that in the future, we may not need to work and only need to use products. If production keeps increasing, after a point, do we actually need to work? Then what is more important—increasing production/products or being able to work? (Mentioned self-satisfaction and contributing to society)

Member 1

1. You mentioned contribution to society. Is Formula One contributing to society?
2. You have done a project on solar desalination. What is solar desalination?
3. What is the status of solar power in India? We had some targets for 2030. Have we achieved them?
4. What is the current efficiency of solar power generation? What is the maximum level that can be achieved?
5. What are the recent advancements in improving the efficiency of solar power generation?
6. What is the percentage share of the industrial sector in GDP? Is India doing well in the industrial sector?
7. What is a startup? What are unicorns?
8. How are startups faring in India? (Cross-questioning) Are they facing challenges such as funding issues? Explain with reference to a specific sector.
9. Yesterday, there was some news about government funding to SIDBI. Are you aware of it?

Member 2

1. Have you been to Delhi before?
2. What is mindfulness meditation? How is it different from other forms of meditation?
3. Isn’t mindfulness more of an attitude, while meditation is much deeper and more analytical? How are the two related?
4. There is a recent trend of increasing suicides among students. What are the reasons? How can we tackle this issue? Can meditation help?
5. People with suicidal tendencies often show certain indications. What are those indications, and how should we identify them?
6. Why is India not doing well in football, except in some regions like Bengal and Kerala? What are we lacking, and what can be done?

Member 3

1. You were part of a Digital Literacy drive some years ago. At present, how would you make people aware of cybersecurity? (Cross-questioning and discussion)
   • Consider us as people who do not know anything about cybersecurity. How would you make us aware of it?
   • Do you know the helpline number for cybersecurity?
2. You are working as a mentor at an academy. What do you do there?
3. When you mentor students, how would you advise them to prepare for the UPSC Personality Test?
4. Have you attended the interview before?
5. Tell us frankly, What is your opinion about this Upsc interview process? Do you have any suggestions improve this process or Is this just perfect?

Member 4

1. You have Malayalam Literature as your optional. Literature, dance forms, etc., are cultural expressions. What does Mohiniyattam symbolise? Who is Mohini?
2. You studied in Kottayam? Ernakulam District or Kochi District? Kottayam is a neighbouring district of yours. There is a saint from Kottayam. Do you know who it is?
3. Why is Kerala lagging behind in industries? (Cross-questioning)
4. Kerala has many boards like the Coconut Board, Rubber board, Spices Board, yet it is still lagging. Why?

5. Do you think people’s attitude is also an issue in this regard? If you were the Industries Secretary, what would you do to change this attitude?

6. Isn’t nokkukooli, where wages are demanded without even working, also a major attitude problem?
7. Despite all these issues, why is Kerala still called “God’s Own Country”?

Thank you

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Overall, the board was cordial and conversational. The Chairperson and some of the members were smiling. All of them were very attentive.

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